YELLOW AND ORANGE WILD FLOWERS 
There are about twenty species of this group found 
in North America and Mexico. 
THE GOLDEN-RODS 
Solidago. Thistle Family. 
Heralding the advent of the final, and most gor- 
geous floral pageant of the year, the monotoned 
Golden-rods literally romp over everything that is 
rompable from valley to peak. They form a most 
conspicuous and truly regal escort for their consorts, 
those bewildering hosts of starry Asters which, in 
eager haste, strive to overtake them. Thoreau wrote: 
“The sun has shone on the earth, 
And the Golden-rod is his fruit. 
The stars, too, have shone on it, 
And the Asters are their fruit.” 
The Golden-rods may represent the main crop of the 
“sun’s fruit,’ but surely the Dandelion and Buttercup, 
in fact a hundred others for that matter, of this cloth- 
of-gold, are entitled to some consideration in this 
conclusion. The Golden-rod is so very well and 
familiarly known that it requires little, if any, intro- 
duction. There are upward of eighty species, per- 
haps more, in the United States, and besides, there 
are many hybrids — intergrades — which make them 
extremely difficult to distinguish as distinct species. 
We Americans hold a certain natural affinity toward 
this purely native-bred beauty, and it is pretty generally 
conceded to be the favourite for our national flower. 
It has already been adopted as the State flower 
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