338 
SOL 
most simple solids of our body are perhaps merely terres¬ 
trial, and incapable of change or disease. Arbuthnot. 
SOLIDAGO [from solidare, or solidando vulnera, from 
its supposed efficacy in healing wounds], in Botany, a genus 
of the class syngenesia, order polygamia superflua, natural 
order of compositae discoideae, corymbiferae (Juss.) —Ge¬ 
neric Character. Calyx-, common oblong, imbricate ; scales 
oblong, narrow, acuminate, straight, converging. Corolla: 
compound radiate. Corollets hermaphrodite tubular, very 
many, in the disk: female ligulate, fewer than ten (com¬ 
monly five) in the ray. Proper of the hermaphrodite funnel- 
form, with a five-cleft, patulous border: female ligulate, 
lanceolate, three-toothed. Stamina in the hermaphrodites : 
filaments five, capillary, very short. Anthers cylindrical, 
tubular. Pistil, in the hermaphrodites: germ oblong. Style 
filiform, length of the stamens. Stigma bifid, spreading. 
In the females: germ oblong. Style filiform, length of the 
hermaphrodite. Stigmas two, revolute. Pericarp none. 
Calyx scarcely changed. Seeds in the hermaphrodites soli¬ 
tary, obovate-oblong. Seed-down capillary ; in the females 
very like the others. Receptacle flatfish, naked.— Essential 
Character. Calyx: scale imbricate, closed. Corollets of 
the ray about five. Seed-down simple. Receptacle 
naked. 
I.—With racemes directed one way. 
1. Solidago Canadensis, or Canadian golden-rod.—Stem 
villose, erect; leaves lanceolate, serrate, triple-nerved, rugged; 
racemes panicled, recurved ; ligules abbreviated.—The 
golden-rods are natives of North America, except two species 
which are found in Europe, and two others which were 
discovered by Houstoun in New Spain. 
2. Solidago procera, or great golden-rod.—Stem villose, 
upright; leaves lanceolate, serrate, triple-nerved, rugged, 
villose underneath; racemes spike-shaped, erect, before they 
open nodding; ligules abbreviated. 
3. Solidago serotina, or upright smooth golden-rod.— 
Stem upright, round, even; leaves linear-lanceolate, smooth, 
rough at the edge, serrate, triple-nerved; racemes panicled, 
directed one way. 
4. Solidago gigantea, or gigantic golden-rod.—Stem up¬ 
right, smooth; leaves lanceolate, smooth, serrate, rugged at 
the edge; racemes panicled; peduncles rough-haired; li¬ 
gules abbreviated. 
5. Solidago altissima, or tall golden rod.—Stem upright, 
rough-haired; leaves lanceolate, very rugged, wrinkled, 
serrate, nerveless, panicles directed one way.—There are be¬ 
sides in this section Solidago reflexor, lateriflora, aspera, 
memoralis, arguta, juncea, elliptica, sempervirens, and 
odora. Mr. Miller has made five species out of this. Soli¬ 
dago altissima, pilosa, recurvata, Virginiana, rugosa. 
II.—With upright racemes. 
C. Solidago lanceolata, or gross leaved golden-rod.—Stem 
smooth, very much branched ; leaves linear-lanceolate, quite 
entire, three-nerved, smooth; corymbs terminating; ligules 
the height of the disk. 
7. Solidago laevigata, or fleshy-leaved golden-rod.—Stem 
upright, even; leaves lanceolate, fleshy, quite entire, even 
all over; racemes panicled, upright; peduncles scaly, vil¬ 
lose ; ligules elongated. 
8 . Solidago Mexicana, or Mexican golden-rod.—-Stem 
oblique, smooth; leaves lanceolate, somewhat fleshy, quite 
entire, even all over; racemesjpanicled, upright; peduncles 
scaly, smooth; ligules elongated. 
9. Solidago viminea, or twiggy golden-rod.-—Stem up¬ 
right, subpubescent; leaves linear-lanceolate, membrana¬ 
ceous, attenuated at the base, smooth, except at the edge, 
which is rugged, the lowest subserrate; racemes upright; 
ligules elongated. 
10. Solidago virgaurea, or common golden-rod.—Root 
perennial, of long simple fibres.—Native of Europe, Siberia 
and Japan, in woods, coppices, hedges and heaths. It has 
many varieties.—The others of this section are, Solidago 
stricta, petiolaris, bicolor, rigida, caesia, flexicaulis, ambigua, 
multiradiata, minuta, urticifolia, and fruticosa. 
SOL 
Propagation and Culture. —These plants are all hardy 
(except the two sorts last mentioned), and therefore will thrive 
in the open air in England. Many of them having spa' 
cious panicles of flowers, are great ornaments to the English 
gardens at the end of the summer, when there is a scarcity 
of other flowers, which renders them more valuable. When 
they are once obtained, they may be propagated in plenty by 
parting their roots; the best time for doing it is in autumn, 
as soon as their flowers are past. 
To SO'LIDATE, v. a. [solido, Lat.] To make firm or 
solid. 
This shining piece of ice. 
Which melts so soon away 
With the sun’s ray,' 
Thy verse does solidate and crystallize. Cowley. 
SOLI'DITY, s. [solidite, Fr.; soliditas, Lat.] Fulness 
of matter; not hollowness. Firmness; hardness; compact¬ 
ness; density; not fluidity.—That which hinders the ap¬ 
proach of two bodies, when they are moving one towards 
another, I call solidity. Locke. —Truth; not fallacious¬ 
ness; intellectual strength; certainty.—The most known 
rules are placed in so beautiful a light, that they have all the 
graces of novelty; and make the reader, who was before ac¬ 
quainted with them, still more convinced of their truth and 
solidity. Addison. 
SO'LIDLY, adv. Firmly; densely; compactly. Truly; 
on good grounds.—A complete brave man ought to know 
solidly the main end he is in the world for. Digby. 
SO'LIDNESS, s. Solidity; firmness; density.—It is 
built with that unusual solidness, that it seems he intended 
to make a sacrifice to perpetuity, and to contest with the iron 
teeth of time. Howell. 
SOLIDU'NGULOUS, ad), [solidus and ungula, Lat.] 
Whole-hoofed.—It is set down by Aristotle and Pliny, that 
an horse and all solidungulous or whole-hoofed animals 
have no gall, which we find repugnant unto reason. Brown. 
SOLIDUS, in Ancient Coinage. According to Pliny’s 
account, gold was coined at Rome sixty-two years after 
silver, i. e. 547 U. C. or B. C. 204; and then the scruple 
passed, as he informs us, for 20 sesterces. It was afterwards 
thought proper to coin 40 pieces out of the pound of gold; 
and, as he says, our princes have, by degrees, diminished 
their weight to 45 in the pound. The pieces that now 
remain confirm Pliny’s account. In the first coinage, the 
aurei were 48 in the pound ; afterwards, as Pliny says, there 
were 40 in the pound, and the aureus was raised from 106 
grains, the weight of the didrachm of this coinage, to 126 
grains. From Pliny and the coins it appears, that in the 
first coinage, the scruple of gold passed for 20 sesterces; the 
drachm of three scruples was 60 sestertii, or 15 silver denarii; 
and the didrachm, or aureus, the common Roman gold coin, 
was worth 30 silver denarii, equal to 1/. sterling; gold being 
to silver as 17] to 1. The aureus seems to have continued 
at 30 silver denarii till Sylla’s time; but about the year of 
Rome 675, B. C. 77, the aureus fell to the rate of 40 in the 
pound, as Pliny informs us, and being reduced near the scale 
of the Greek ytua-oc, passed for 20 denarii, as the latter for 
20 drachmas, being in currency 13s. 4c/. English. This is 
the more probable, because we know from Suetonius, that 
the great Caesar brought so much gold from Gaul, that it sold 
at 3000 nummi a pound, that is, nine times its weight in 
silver; but the Gallic gold was of a very base sort. How¬ 
ever, in the reign of Claudius, the aureus passed for 100 
sestertii, or 25 silver denarii; at which rate it remained. 
This was 16s. 8 d. in English currency; but valuing gold 
at 4/. an ounce, the intrinsic value of the aureus is about 
1/. The aureus fell by degrees, as Pliny says, to 45 in the 
pound. From the coins it is clear, that it was in the time 
of the civil wars of Otho and Vitellius, that the aureus fell 
from 40 in the pound, or about 125 troy grains at a 
medium, to 45 in the pound, or about 110 grains of medial 
weight each. It continued of this standard till the time 
of Heliogabalus, when it fell to about 92 grains at an aver¬ 
age, or near 55 in the pound. That the aureus passed for 
25 silver 
