GOLDENSTAR 



Chrysogonum virginianum Linnaeus 



Goldenstar is a showy and handsome plant of moist or dry wood- 

 lands. What appear to be its flowers are heads made up of numerous 

 tiny tubular flowers, each of the five outer ones having its corolla trans- 

 formed into a golden ray. The first flower heads bloom in spring, but 

 the plant often continues to produce new blossoms from its lengthen- 

 ing stems until midsummer. The early-flowering plants, with their 

 compact tufts of hairy leaves, are much more beautiful than the sprawl- 

 ing and weather-beaten plants of summer. Goldenstar is the only rep- 

 resentative of its genus. It is seldom a common plant, but it is par- 

 ticularly abundant in the neighborhood of Washington, District of 

 Columbia, where the specimen sketched was collected. 



Goldenstar ranges from Florida and Alabama northward to south- 

 ern Pennsylvania. 



PLATE 145 



