158 COMPOSITiE. Solidago. 



= = Leaves ottuse ov abruptly apiculate, or acutish, of firm or coriaceous texture, upper ones 

 entire: pubescence all close, cinereous or caiicscent, or scabro-hispidulous ; lateral ribs com- 

 monly incomplete, often obscure or wanting: panicle mostly compact, naked: bracts of the 

 involucre broadish and obtuse, of firm texture: rays fewer and larger, golden yellow. The 

 species are confluent, 

 u. Cinereous to canescent with fine and soft or at length minutely scabrous pubescence: leaves firm 

 but seldom very rigid. 

 S. Californica, Nutt. Stem rather stout, either low or tall, canescently puberulent or 

 pubescent : leaves oblong or the upper oblong-lauceolate and the lower obovate, obtuse or 

 apiculate, entire or the lower with some small teeth, canescently puberulent or beneath more 

 pubescent : thyrsus virgate, 4 to 12 inches long, dense ; the racemiforra clusters erect or 

 * barely spreading in age, when elongated mostly secund, and even with the apex at length 

 recurved : heads 3 or 4 lines long : bracts of the involucre lanceolate-oblong or oblong-linear, 

 mostly obtuse, externally somewhat puberulent: rays 7 to 12, fewer than the disk-flowers: 

 akenes minutely pubescent, — Trans. Am. Phil. .Soc. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 203 ; Gray, 

 Bot. Calif, i. 319. <S. puberula, Cham. & Schlecht. in Linn. vi. 502, not Nutt. ,S'. petiolaris, 

 Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beech. 145, partly. -?. vetutinn, DC, var. "panicula contracta," DC. Prodr. 

 V. 332, Hmnlce, whose " Real del Monte " is Monterey, California. — Dry ground, California 

 to the borders of Nevada and Mexico. 



Var, Nevadensis, Gray. Thyrsus and its clusters more secund : heads rather 

 • smaller: involucre mostly glabrous. — Bot. Calif. 1. c. — Sierra Nevada, California, and 



Nevada from Plumas Co. to Owens Valley, &c. Transition to S. nemoralis. 

 S. nemoralis, Ait. Mostly low, with the fine and uniform close pubescence either soft or 

 (in age and in dried specimens) minutely scabrous : leaves from spatulate-obovate to ob- 

 lanceolate or somewhat linear; upper entire and small (half-inch or more long) ; radical and 

 lower cauline sparingly serrate : thyrsus and its compact racemiform clusters secund, com- 

 monly recurved-spreading : heads 2 or 3 lines long : bracts of the involucre oblong-linear or 

 narrower, obtuse, smooth and glabrous: flowers (appearing rather early) deep yellow: rays 

 5 to g.usually more numerous than the disk-fiowers : akenes closely pubescent. — Kew. iii. 213; 

 Pursh, Fl. ii. 537 ; DC. Prodr. v. 333 ; Torr. & Gray, PL ii. 220. S. hispida, Muhl. in 

 Willd. Spec. iii. 2063 ; Pursh, Fl. ii. 541. S. conferta, Poir. Diet. viii. 459. S. ctnerascens, 

 Schwein. in Ell. Sk. ii. 375. S. decemflora, DC. SrodrN-. 322. ,S. puberula, DC. 1. c. 333, 

 not Nutt. — Dry hills or sterile soil, throughout Canada and Saskatchewan to Florida and 

 Texas, and west to Arizona, Utah, and Nevada ; in the eastern region soft-cinereous ; be- 

 yond the Mississippi often greener and more scabrous ; or in Utah and New Jlexico greenish 

 and hardly scabrous. In the Rocky Mountains and northward mostly occur low and more 

 canescent forms. (Adj. Me.x.) 



Var. inodna, Gray, Proc. 1. c. Dwarf, a span to a foot high : leaves oval or oblong, 

 , rigid, more or less canescent, sometimes rather strongly serrate, sometimes mostly entire : 

 racemiform clusters erect or the lower somewhat spreading, collected in a dense oblong or 

 conical thyrsus. — S. mollis, BartL Ind. Sera. Hort. Gcett. 1836, 5; DC. Prodr. i. 279; in 

 cult, specimens the involucral bracts are narrowish and somewhat acute, as also in one form 

 of .S'. incana, Torr. & Gr.ay, Fl. ii. 221 (excl. var.), while in a similar one, collected with it by 

 Nicollet, they are linear-oblong and obtuse. — Plains of Minnesota and Dakota ( XicoUet, &c.) 

 to the Rocky Jlouiitains of Montana and Colorado. (Adj. Jlex ) 

 S. nana, Nutt. a span to -a foot high, canescent with minute dense puberulence, not sca- 

 brous in age : leaves mostly obovate or spatulate and entire, small : heads (3 lines long) 

 " broad, few or rather numerous in an oblong or corymbiform panicle, not at all secund : 

 bracts of the involucre oval or oblong, very obtuse : otherwise nearly as .S. nemoralis. — Natt. 

 Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 1. c. 327 (in herb. " 5. pumila ") ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c — Rocky Moun- 

 tains and high plains, Wyoming to N. Arizona and N. E. Nevada ; first coll. by Xattall. 

 b. Ilispidulous-scabrous, rigid, green! 

 ' S. r^dula, Nutt. Stem a foot or two high, scabro-puberulent : leaves rigidh- coriaceous, 

 short, loosely reticulate-veined, occasionally with well-developed lateral ribs, obtuse, sparsely 

 . serrate or entire, from oval or obovate to oblong-spatulate (lowest 2 or 3 inches long, upper- 

 most an inch or less, or rounded ones on the branches reduced to half or quarter iuch), very 

 hispidulous-scabrous at least on the veins, the midrib and margins often hispid : branches of 

 the thyrsus secund and when well developed recurved-spreading ; heads 2 and at most 3 



