Yellow and Orang^e 



lacks a basal tuft at flowering time, but its firm stem, that may be 

 any height from one to five feet, is amply furnished with oblong 

 to lance-shaped leaves seated on it, their midrib prominent, the 

 margins sparingly but sharply toothed. In dry, open woods and 

 thickets, and along shady roadsides, its loosely clustered heads of 

 clear yellow, about one inch across, are displayed from July to 

 September ; and later the copious brown bristles remain for spar- 

 rows to peck at. 



The Rough Hawkweed {H. scabrum), with a stout, stiff stem 

 crowned with a narrow branching cluster of small yellow flower- 

 heads on dark bristly peduncles, also lacks a basal tuft at flower- 

 ing time. Its hairy oblong leaves are seated on the rigid stem. 

 In dry. open places, clearings, and woodlands from Nova Scotia to 

 Georgia, and westward to Nebraska, it blooms from July to Sep- 

 tember. 



More slender and sprightly is the Hairy Hawkweed [H. Gro- 

 novii), common in sterile soil from Massachusetts and Illinois to 

 the Gulf States. The basal leaves and lower part of the stiff stem, 

 especially, are hairy, not to allow too free transpiration of precious 

 moisture. 



Golden Aster 



{Chrysopsis Mariana) Thistle family 



Flower-heads — Composite, yellow, i in. wide or less, a few cor- 

 ymbed flowers on glandular stalks ; each composed of per- 

 fect tubular disk florets surrounded by pistillate ray florets ; 

 the involucre campanulate, its narrow bracts overlapping in 

 several series. Stem : Stout, silky-hairy when young, nearly 

 smooth later, i to 2}^ ft. tall. Leaves : Alternate, oblong to 

 spatulate, entire. 



Preferred Habitat— Dry soil, or sandy, not far inland. 



Flowering Season — August — September. 



Distribution — Long Island and Pennsylvania to the Gulf States. 



Whoever comes upon clumps of these handsome flowers by 

 the dusty roadside cannot but be impressed with the appropriate- 

 ness of their generic name (Chrysos — gold ; opsts = aspect). Far- 

 ther westward, north and south, it is the Hairy Golden Aster (C. 

 villosa), a pale, hoary-haired plant with similar flowers borne at 

 midsummer, that is the common species. 



Golden-rods 



{Solidago) Thistle family 



When these flowers transform whole acres into " fields of the 

 doth-of-gold," the slender wands swaying by every roadside, and 



348 



