SEPTEMBEE. 175 



from now till the end of the year. It grows in 

 woods and thickets, and is often planted in 

 shrubberies. It was once supposed to be a 

 cure for wounds . It was brought, in a dried state, 

 from the woods of other lands, and sold in the 

 London markets by the herb-women of queen 

 Elizabeth's days ; and, about that time, it was 

 first discovered to grow wild in llampstead 

 woods. Botanists were not so numerous then 

 as they are now; and this mxist account for the 

 fact, that a flower which grows wild in several 

 English counties had never previously been 

 supposed to be indigenous. Fuller — who, in 

 enumerating the " Worthies of England," intro- 

 duces them to his readers, by an account of the 

 vegetable productions of their native counties — 

 speaks very highly of the golden rod, and cen- 

 sures its disuse : — " Some maintain," says he, 

 " that every county cures the diseases which 

 it causes, and bringeth remedies for all the 

 maladies bred therein. An opinion which grant 

 not true, yet may have much of truth, seeing 

 that every coimty of England especially aflFord- 

 eth excellent plants, were it not partly for men's 

 laziness that they will not seek them ; partly 

 for their ignorance, that they will not know 

 them ; and partly for their pride and peevish- 

 ness, that because, when they are found, they 

 disdain to use and apply them." lie adds, 

 that while the golden rod was brought, at great 

 expense, from foreign countries, it was highly 

 valued : but that it was no sooner discovered to 

 be a native plant, than it was discarded from use. 



