368 FLORA HISTORICA. 



GOLDEN ROD. SoUdago. 



Natural Order Composltce Discoidece. Corymhiferce^ 

 Juss. A Genus of the Syngenesia Polygamia Su- 

 perflua Class. 



In golden armour, glorious to behold. 



Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright 

 Through the transparent bosom of the deep. 



The generic name of this plant is derived from 

 solidare, soUdando vulncra, or in solidum ago, *'I 

 consolidate," from its supposed efficacy in healing 

 ■wounds ; and so highly did our ancestors esteem it 

 for this and other medicinal properties, about the 

 middle of the sixteenth century, that it ranked 

 amongst the most expensive drugs. Gerard ob- 

 serves, at the end of that century, *' It is extolled 

 aboue all other herbes for the stopping of blood in 

 sanguinolent vlcers and bleeding wounds, and hath 

 in times past been had in greater estimation and 

 rcgarde than in these daies 3 for, within my remem- 

 brance, I haue knowne the drie herbe which came 

 from beyond the seas solde in Bucklersburie, in 

 London, for halfc a crownc an ounce. But since 

 (says the same author) it was founde in Hampsteed 



