136 PLANTS GROWING IN MOIST SOiL. 



cheery as that of the skunk cabbage ; for they bid us get 

 ready for the winter, when everything is pale and cold and the 

 wind soughs sadly through the trees. But they deliver it gaily 

 and remain with us until they themselves are withered down to 

 the ground by the frost. 



In manner of growth they are very dissimilar, some forming 

 heavy, dense racemes, as can be seen from the illustration of 

 S. juncea, and others branching and sub-branching into light, 

 feathery clusters ; but to whatever variations they are subject, 

 there is something about a golden rod that could never be mis- 

 taken for any other flower. 



They are weeds, and with the exception of S. bicolor, a silvery, 

 slender variety which grows on the borders of dry w^oods, yel- 

 low in colour. Of the attempts to cultivate them very few 

 have been successful ; they cling rather to the fields and way- 

 sides for their homes, where as true rods of gold they are a 

 beautiful feature of the American autumn. 



S. fistuVosa, pine barren golden rod, is found, as its common 

 name implies, in wet pine barrens, especially those of New 

 Jersey and as far south as Florida. The leaves are sessile, 

 lanceolate and rough. The small flower-heads grow on the 

 recurved branches of panicles. 



S. jiincea, Plate LXIX, is a well-known golden-rod that is 

 commonly found in dry soil along the roadsides and sometimes 

 in more moist places. Its myriads of flowers with small rays 

 grow in drooping, heavy panicles. The upper leaves are del- 

 icately coloured, narrow and entire. The lower ones are 

 sharply toothed and have a distinctive mark in their fringed 

 petioles. It is but seldom that the plant is found over two feet 

 high. 



