18 Rudbeckia fulgida.
R oot perennial. Stem about two feet high, terete, sometimes simple,
often branched, hairy. Branches virgate, elongated, pedunculi-
form, one-flowered. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, remotely denticulate,
hispid on both sides and on the margin, the hair running regularly
from the base towards the apex,- attenuated toward the base, and
sub-cordate, closely sessile, acute. The leaves on the pedunculate
stem small, not serrated nor cordate, but attenuated at either end,
and sessile. Lower and radicle leaves oval-lanceolate or oval, acute
attenuated at base, and more distinctly cordate, with more and larger
teeth, and distinctly three-nerved. Flowers solitary, terminal. Rays
oval, or oval-lanceolate, one-toothed or notched, about thirteen in
number; gamboge-yellow, paler underneath. Disk hemispherical,
auricula-purple. Calix leafy, leaves lanceolate, hairy, acute, nearly
as long as the rays. Found in mountain and other meadows, and
on the borders of damp woods, from the northern to the southern
states, flowering from July until October.
The genus of which a species is here figured, was dedicated by
Linnseus to the memory of his countrymen, Orlof Rudbeck, father
and son, both alike conspicuous for their learning and botanical
attainments, and his predecessors in the botanical professorship at
Upsal. Linnaeus chose a genus allied to Helianthus, because a sunflower
constituted a part of the coat-of-arms of the family of Rudbeck.
Rudbeckia fulgida. 19
The genus Rudbeckia contains several species not well understood
or described; and the present species is an example of this.
It has often been confounded with the R. hirta, to which it bears
certainly much resemblance, though it has much smaller and deeper
yellow-coloured flowers, and is niuch less hairy. The root of R.
hirta is biennial; that of R. fulgida, perennial. The disk of the former
is conical and dark brown, that of the latter is hemispherical
and deep auricula-purple. The leaves of the calix of R. fulgida are
broader, more ovate, and more hairy than in the hirta. Dillenius’s
figure in the Hortus Elthamensis, is a very good specimen. In that
plate it will be perceived, that the attenuation and cordation of the
base of the leaves of R. fulgida is absent. The leaves in the figure
are broader at the base than in the fulgida, and only closely sessile.
The attenuation of the leaves base-ways, in the fulgida, contrasted
with the broader and rather auriculated bases of those of the hirta,
is a constant and good discriminative character between these allied
species. Added to which, in the hirta the whole plant is larger, more
robust, and more branched, and has long white hairs variously and
irregularly arranged, particularly on the leaves.
This being one of the perennial species of Rudbeckia, may be
raised by either offsets, cuttings or seeds. The seeds should be sown
in April, in light earth, on an open or exposed border, separating the
seedlings, till autumn, and then planting them out in the places
where they are destined to remain. They require a light and damp
soil.