the Golden Rod 



had, although it growes so neere our owne homes 



in never so great quantitie." Gerard himself was 



quite consistent, and in his own practice kept it ever 



in the foremost rank of " wound drinks " ; and it 



seems to have recovered its prestige later, for 



Culpepper, writing in the days of Oliver Cromwell, 



speaks again of it as a sovereign wound herb. He 



also gives a very curious property of the plant ; he 



says that a decoction made from it " helps to fasten 



the teeth that are loose in the gums." One wonders 



how he arrived at this conclusion. It seems a little 



too far-fetched for his favourite " Dr. Experience " 



to have taught him. 



As a genus the Golden Rods belong in the main 



to North America ; no fewer than eighty-five 



different kinds have been counted there, and fields, 



many acres in extent, are converted by them into 



veritable " fields of the cloth of gold." But though 



many of these plants find a place in our English 



gardens, only one kind of Golden Rod — the Solidago 



virga aurea, i.e. literally the Solidago Golden Rod — 

 74 185 



