FLORA HISTORICA. 



GOLDEN-ROD. Solidaso 



O 



Natural Order CompositcB DiscoidecE, Corymbifera, 

 Juss : a Genus of the Syngenesia Polygamia Super- 

 flua Class. 



** In g-olden armour g-lorious to behold." 



" Nor shines the silver moon one half so brig-ht 

 Through the transparent bosom of the deep." 



The generic name of this plant is derived from 

 solidare, solidando vulnera, 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 stoppin*g of blood 

 in sanguinolent vlcers and bleeding wounds ; 

 and hath in times past been had in greater esti- 

 mation and regarde than in these dales ; for 

 within my remembrance, I haue knowne the drie 

 herbe which came from beyond the seas, solde in 

 Bucklers burie, in London, for halfe a crowne an 

 ounce. But since (says the same author,) it was 



