THE GOLDEN-RODS. 



begin blooming 



A CAMPAIGN PAPER 



,,LL HONOR to the golden- 

 rod ! Whether or not its 

 blossom shall finally be 

 dubbed with due formality 

 ' ' our national flower, " it has 

 long made good its claim to 

 preeminence among the flow 

 ers of autumn ; and indeed, 

 though we are commonly ac- 

 customed to regard it as an 

 autumn flower only, some spe- 

 midsummer. Before the earliest 

 aster shows itself in robes of lavender-blue — the exquisite 

 tint of Aster Unifoliits — the early golden-rod, Solidago 

 argiita, has had its blooming season. In its place we 

 find the low-growing species, S. nemoralis, readily dis- 

 tinguished by its dense, recurved and one-sided panicles 

 of bloom, its roughish gray stems and scanty foliage. 

 It grows from 6 inches to iVz feet in height, and makes 

 all the sterile fields and waste places blaze with its 

 brightness. 



From early in July iintil the close of " Saint Martin's 

 summer " the golden-rods are, with us, blooming royally 

 in spite of the fiercest drought, and they stand out against 

 the invasion of frost until all the asters have gone down 

 before it, and only a few hardy, late 'flowers are left to 

 keep them company. I have seen Solidago argula in 

 bloom on the fifth day of July, and have found S. ccesia, 

 the latest of the species, flowering well into November. 



This last is the typical "rod of gold," — a slender, 

 swaying wand with bright yellow flowers set thickly in 

 little clusters along the stem to its tapering tip, a cluster 

 in the axil of each leaf, and the leaves alone attracting 



genus. There is nothing weedy about this plant, what- 

 ever may be said of the coarser species. It is delicate 

 and graceful, and does not flaunt its beauty boldly in the 



Solidago c^sia. 



bOLlDAGO NEMORALIS. 



Solidago arguta. 



notice by their beauty. They are lanceolate in outline, 

 with toothed edges, thin and beautifully veined, and their 

 color is a rich, deep green, unlike the dull or dusty look- 

 ing foliage often associated with showier flowers of the 



face of the passer-by. Look for it along the moist, 

 shaded banks of some ravine where water runs, or in the 

 borders of rich woods, and if you find the fringed gentian 

 or its rarer sister, the mystical closed gentian, growing 

 near, put the two in juxtaposition, and you will have a, 

 ravishing study in blue and gold. But the flower whioh^ 

 I have most frequently observed blooming late in the 

 season beside this dainty golden-rod, is the white, sweet- 

 scented orchid, Sfiranthes cernua. 



Perhaps everyone may not know that there is a 2uhite 

 solidago, which can hardly be called a golden-rod. Its 

 ray-flowers are usually cream-colored, but often really 

 white. This, also, is a wood-plant, but likes a dry wood- 

 soil best, and may be found in copses and shaded places 

 in company with the yellow (false) fox-glove, wild indigo 

 and the uncanny looking rattlesnake-weed, Hierqcium 

 I'enosum — all plants of weird leputeand curious proper- 

 ties. Our white solidago is not behind the rest in having 

 the reputation of a healing virtue. It bears the name 

 of being a balm for wounds ; the type of the genus, 

 in fact, was dedicated to this beneficent use, and de- 

 rives its name from solido — to make whole. How can any 

 one, then, decry the golden-rod as a worthless weed ? 



The white-flowered solidago, though not without at- 

 tractions in the eyes of a true flower-lover, has nothing 



