Sunflowers and Golden Rod. 379 
longer, has more numerous flowers, and thus yields more 
grain than the common variety. The Japan buckwheat is 
said to be superior even to the silver leaf. 
The odd shrub, Hercules’ club, Aralia spinosa, grown as 
a curiosity North, but indigenous in Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee, yields abundant nectar. It blooms at Lookout 
Mountain early in August, just after the sourwood. 
Now come the numerous golden rods. The species of 
Fic. 183. 
Aster, 
the genus Solidago (Fig. 182), in the Eastern United 
States, number nearly two score, and occupy all kinds of 
soils and are at home on upland, prairie and morass. These 
abound in all parts of the United States. They yield 
abundance of rich, golden honey, with flavor that is unsur- 
passed by any other. Fortunate the apiarist who can boast 
of a thicket of Solidagoes in his locality. 
The many plants usually styled sunflowers, because of 
their resemblance to our cultivated plants of that name, 
