Part 39

Flower-heads.—Golden-yellow, composed of both ray and disk-flowers.

About eighty species of golden-rod are native to the United States: of these forty-two species can be found in our Northeastern States. Many of them are difficult of identification, and it would be useless to describe any but a few of the more conspicuous forms.

PLATE LV

BLACK-EYED SUSAN.—R. hirta. ]

A common and noticeable species which flowers early in August is S. Canadensis, with a tall stout stem from three to six feet high, lance-shaped leaves, which are usually sharply toothed and pointed, and small flower-heads clustered along the branches which spread from the upper part of the stem.

Another early flowering species is S. rugosa. This is a lower plant than S. Canadensis, with broader leaves. Still another is the dusty golden-rod, S. nemoralis, which has a hoary aspect and very bright yellow flowers which are common in dry fields.

S. lanceolata has lance-shaped or linear leaves, and flowers which grow in flat-topped clusters, unlike other members of the family; the information that this is a golden-rod often creates surprise, as for some strange reason it seems to be confused with the tansy.

The sweet golden-rod, S. odorata, is easily recognized by its fragrant, shining, dotted leaves. S. cæsia, or the blue-stemmed, is a wood-species and among the latest of the year, putting forth its bright clusters for nearly the whole length of its stem long after many of its brethren look like brown wraiths of their former selves. The silver rod, S. bicolor, whose whitish flowers are a departure from the family habit, also survives the early cold and holds its own in the dry woods.

The only species native to Great Britain is S. Virga-aurea.

The generic name is from two Greek words which signify to make whole, and refer to the healing properties which have been attributed to the genus.

ELECAMPANE. Inula Helenium. Composite Family (p. 13).

Stem.—Stout, three to five feet high. Leaves.—Alternate, large, woolly beneath, the upper partly clasping. Flower-heads.—Yellow, large, composed of both ray and disk-flowers.

PLATE LVI

ELECAMPANE.—I. Helenium. ]

When we see these great yellow disks peeping over the pasture walls or flanking the country lanes, we feel that midsummer is at its height. Flowers are often subservient courtiers, and make acknowledgment of whatever debt they owe by that subtlest of flatteries—imitation. Did not the blossoms of the dawning year frequently wear the livery of the snow which had thrown its protecting mantle over their first efforts? And these newcomers—whose gross, rotund countenances so clearly betray the results of high living—do not they pay their respects to their great benefactor after the same fashion?—with the result that a myriad miniature suns shine upward from meadow and roadside.

The stout, mucilaginous root of this plant is valued by farmers as a horse-medicine, especially in epidemics of epizootic, one of its common names in England being horse-heal.

In ancient times the elecampane was considered an important stimulant to the human brain and stomach, and it was mentioned as such in the writings of Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine,” over two thousand years ago.

The common name is supposed to be a corruption of ala campania, and refers to the frequent occurrence of the plant in that ancient province of Southern Italy.

FALL DANDELION. Leontodon autumnalis. Composite Family (p. 13).

Scape.—Five to fifteen inches high, branching. Leaves.—From the root, toothed or deeply incised. Flower-heads.—Yellow, composed entirely of strap-shaped flowers; smaller than those of the common dandelion.

From June till November we find the fall dandelion along the New England roadsides, as well as farther south. While the yellow flower-heads somewhat suggest small dandelions the general habit of the plant recalls some of the hawkweeds.

WILD SUNFLOWER. Helianthus giganteus. Composite Family (p. 13).

Stem.—Rough or hairy, from three to ten feet high, branched above. Leaves.—Lance-shaped, pointed, rough to the touch, set close to the stem. Flower-heads.—Yellow, composed of both ray and disk-flowers.

PLATE LVII

WILD SUNFLOWER.—H. giganteus. ]

In late summer many of our lanes are hedged by this beautiful plant, which, like other members of its family, lifts its yellow flowers sunward in pale imitation of the great life-giver itself. We have twenty-two different species of sunflower. H. divaricatus is of a lower growth, with opposite, widely spreading leaves and larger flower-heads. H. annuus is the garden species familiar to all; this is said to be a native of Peru. Mr. Ellwanger writes regarding it: “In the mythology of the ancient Peruvians it occupied an important place, and was employed as a mystic decoration in ancient Mexican sculpture. Like the lotus of the East, it is equally a sacred and an artistic emblem, figuring in the symbolism of Mexico and Peru, where the Spaniards found it rearing its aspiring stalk in the fields, and serving in the temples as a sign and a decoration, the sun-god’s officiating handmaidens wearing upon their breasts representations of the sacred flower in beaten gold.”

Gerarde describes it as follows: “The Indian Sun or the golden floure of Peru is a plant of such stature and talnesse that in one Sommer, being sowne of a seede in April, it hath risen up to the height of fourteen foot in my garden, where one floure was in weight three pound and two ounces, and crosse overthwart the floure by measure sixteen inches broad.”

The generic name is from helios—the sun, and anthos—a flower.