| 

136 PLANTS GROWING IN MOIST SOIL. 
cheery as that of the skunk cabbage; for they bid us get 
ready for the winter, when everything is pale and cold and the 
wind soughs sadly through the trees. But they deliver it gaily 
and remain with us until they themselves are withered down to 
the ground by the frost. 
In manner of growth they are very dissimilar, some forming 
heavy, dense racemes, as can be seen from the illustration of 
S. juncea, and others branching and sub-branching into light, 
feathery clusters ; but to whatever variations they are subject, 
there is something about a golden rod that could never be mis- 
taken for any other flower. 
They are weeds, and with the exception of S. bicolor, a silvery, 
slender variety which grows on the borders of dry woods, yel- 
low in colour. Of the attempts to cultivate them very few 
have been successful ; they cling rather to the fields and way- 
sides for their homes, where as true rods of gold they area 
beautiful feature of the American autumn. 
S. fistulosa, pine barren golden rod, is found, as its common 
name implies, in wet pine barrens, especially those of New 
Jersey and as far south as Florida. The leaves are sessile, 
lanceolate and rough. ‘The small flower-heads grow on the 
recurved branches of panicles. 
S. juncea, Plate LXIX, is a well-known golden-rod that is 
commonly found in dry soil along the roadsides and sometimes 
in more moist places. Its myriads of flowers with small rays 
grow in drooping, heavy panicles. ‘The upper leaves are del- 
icately coloured, narrow and entire. The lower ones are 
sharply toothed and have a distinctive mark in their fringed 
petioles. It is but seldom that the plant is found over two feet 
high, 
