10 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



flowers and no ray-flowers. The dandelion is an example. 

 A glance will determine to which of these divisions a Com- 

 posite belongs. There are nearly a hundred genera, and many 

 more species, of Composites. The superficial feature.s, as 

 leaves, size, color, etc., will be given here, and the microscopic 

 study of pappus, chaff, etc., will be relegated to the specialist. 



Golden-rods 



Golden-rods need rio general description. They are as well 

 known, common, and admired as daisies. As the blue hepat- 

 ica is the sign of coming spring, so the golden-rod predicts 

 the fall. During the early summer, green stems arising from 

 the perennial roots spring up everywhere. No ground is so 

 hard and dry as to forbid them. Towards the last of July and 

 first of August, flecks of yellow appear on the tips of the 

 branches. These spread downward, till, by September, the 

 fields are aflame. This plant is one of bright, generous bloom. 

 Sometimes it is tall and straight— a poplar among flowers, a 

 rod of gold. Again it is a graceful, falling fountain of color, 

 or a long, wavy, showy, pampas-like plume. Graceful or stiff, 

 it is a flower to be proud of — a truly national flower, strictly 

 indigenous. We may understand its worth when we try to 

 imagine what our fields, roadsides, and woods would be if be- 

 reft of golden-rods. Certainly our American autumn would 

 lose one chief element of beauty. 



The golden-rods cannot be cultivated — at least, florists 

 liave been successful with only a few species out of the hun- 

 dred or so growing in North America. Forty-two species, 

 with several varieties, are classified in Gray's botany (ed. 1890) 

 as found east of the Mississippi. They have no common 

 names, except as we translate their botanical titles. They 

 -belong to the genus Solidago. Their leaves are generally ses- 

 sile, long, and narrow. The flowers have rays, and all grow 

 together in racemes or corymbs, or in clusters along the stem. 



