THE THISTLE EAMILV. 507 



GOLDEN-ROD. {^Platc CLX/X.) 

 Soh'ddi^o glomcrata. 



TIME OF BLOOM 



Au,:-'- "■■ . 



Fhnuer-heads : growing on pubescent peduncles in axillary and tcrniii 

 and including both radiate and tubular Howers. Involucre : of sever. i 

 inibricated-oblong-obtuse green bracts. Rays : six to twelve, oval, roun 

 apex. Disk-Jlowers : numerous. Leai'cs : large; alternate; oblanccoLile, of 

 oblong-ovate, long pointed at the apex, tapering at the base ; serrate, or cnlirc,' the 

 midrib prominent on the under side; rather thick; smooth. Stem: stout; erect; 

 one to three feet high ; smooth or slightly pubescent above. 



It was about this golden-rod, with its pretentious-looking leaves and 

 great compact heads of flowers, that Dr. Gray wrote after a visit to Roan 

 Mountain : 



" Near the summit of the mountain we saw immense quantities of a low, 

 but very large-leaved solidago, not yet in flower, which I take to be the Soli- 

 dago glomerata of Michaux, who could not have failed to observe such a con- 

 spicuous and abundant plant, especially as it must have been in full blossom 

 at the time he ascended this mountain. It does not, however, altogether ac- 

 cord with Michaux's description, nor does that author notice the size of the 

 heads, which in our plant are among the largest of the genus." 



On Grandfather Mountain in the last of October, I saw the plant bloom- 

 ing in great abundance. It could not, as Ur. Gray had said. " fail to be 

 observed." It is so large, so brilliant in colouring. To the high summits of 

 such mountains it confines itself, and in the late season it casts over t!>'n' 

 much beauty. 



S. sfithamo'a.^ golden-rod, another species of the high mountains it 

 North Carolina and Tennessee, we collected on Grandfather Moiniiain. n<«t 

 far distant from Solidago glomerata. It grew usually from eight to i\\ 

 inches high, and its racemes of flower-heads in crowded corymbs app- 

 immensely heavy and dense. The ray flowers number from six to seven. 

 and the erect, stiff stems are pubescent above. It is a species of Dr. M. .\. 

 Curtis, who collected specimens of it as well as of Solidago glomerata. 



S. inonticbla, mountain golden-rod, which also follows the mountain's 

 high ridges and grows over a district extending from Georgia and .Mabnma 

 to Pennsylvania, is distinctive by its very thin, sharply-serrated leaves. 

 broadly oblong and by its close heads of flowers, which grow in a terminal 

 and spike-like thyrsus. In the moist soil of woods on Ml. Mitchell it is 

 very abundant. 



