250 COMPOSITE. [Solidago. 



On muddy sea-shores, in salt-marshes, on the bants of tide-rivers, ditches and 

 creeks ; not uncommon. Fl. August— October. 2^. 



£1. Med. — Ditches by the Dover, Ryde, and between Springfield and Sea 

 View. At Wootton bridge. 



W. Med. — Common in the marshes about Newtown and Yarmouth. Shorwell, 

 Hev. G. E. Smith. 



/3. Brading harbour; about Yarmouth ; in Newtown marshes and elsewhere 

 occasionally. 



Receptacle naked, alveolate, the foveae wilh deeply laciniated membranous bor- 

 ders. Achenia brownish, linear-oblong, much compressed, glabrous or with a few 

 scattered hairs and a small tuft at the base, scarcely angular, without striae. 

 Pappus dirly white, much longer than the seed, in several rows, simple, rough and 

 striated. 



This plant is very sweet or honey-scented in its blossoms, a circumstance, I 

 believe, very unusual in this genus, as in most autumnal-flowering genera. 



IV. Solidago, Lmn. Golden-rod. 



" Achenes terete. Pappus pilose, rough, in a single row. Re- 

 ceptacle naked. Involucre closely imbricated. Anthers without 

 bristles at the base. Florets of the ray few, in one row, and, as 

 well as those of the disk, yellow." — Br. Fl. 



1. S. Virgaurea, L. Common Golden-rod. Stem erect pubes- 

 cent, radical leaves petiolate mostly elliptical, cauline ones lan- 

 ceolate acute deflexed entire or serrate nearly sessile, racemes 

 panicled erect crowded."— -Br. Fl. p. 236. E. B. t. 301. 



In woods, groves and thickets, on hedgebanks, heaths, and dry, hilly, bushy 

 places ; abundant. Fl. July — -October. Fr. October, November. 2f . 



A very variable plant, 1 — 3 feet high. i?oo< thick, woody, with long simple 

 fibres. Stems several, erect, roundish or angular, simple, reddish or greenish, 

 leafy, more or less downy, zigzag or nearly straight. Root-leayes fascicled, on 

 long channelled footstalks, elliptical or elliptical-lanceolate, acute, sometimes 

 partly obovate and obtuse, crenate or even sharply serrated, and ciliated on their 

 margins ; stem-leaves scattered, lanceolate-acute, serrated or nearly entire, wavy, 

 curled or twisted and deflexed, dark green, more or less hairy, covered with a 

 close reticulation of veins beneath, nearly sessile, with a bundle of smaller leaves 

 in the axil of each (the rudiments of flower- clusters). Raceme terminal, pa- 

 nicled, of many crowded erect clusters of bright golden-yellow flowers, on downy 

 bracteated pedicels. Scales of the involucre green, linear, keeled, erect and 

 appressed, acute, wilh membranous edges, torn or subciliate at the tips. Florets 

 of the ray few, 5 — 10, the ray itself elliptical-oblong, 4-nerved, spreading, with 3 

 minute teeth at the apex, tube hairy without ; fiorets of the disk tubular, deeply 

 5-cleft, segments acute. Receptacle cellular, deeply foveated, naked. Achenes 

 pale brown, about 2 lines in length, slender, subfusiform, a little compressed, 

 many- and prominently ribbed, truncate at top, sprinkled with short, white, erect, 

 bristly hairs. Pappus simple, sessile, dirty white, single-rowed, very rough with 

 erect spinules, rather longer than the fruit. 



This, like Eupatorium cannabinum, is the only British or indeed European 

 representative of a vast American genus, and is itself found on that continent, 

 while the other is not. The botanical character of Solidago approaches very 

 nearly that of Aster. 



V. Erigeeon, Linn. Fleabane. 



" Achenes compressed. Pappus pilose, rough. Florets of the 

 disk fertile ; of the ray numerous, in several rows, very narrow 



