safford: cosmos sulphureus 615 



and is an herb well known to everybody. Only the flower is 

 used, the which is moderately hot and of an agreeable odor and 

 taste, comforting the heart, curing maladies of the womb and 

 ulcers, especially those of the mouth. But the chief use of the 

 flowers is for dyeing wool and painting images and objects of a 

 yellow color which in a certain manner verges to red, for which 

 object they are boiled in water together with an alkali, after 

 which the juice is expressed and strained, yielding a color which 

 is used by painters and dyers, for the purposes we have indicated."- 



A search for the name xochipalU, or its modern variant, suchi- 

 pal, in Ramirez and Alcocer's Sinonomia vulgar y cieniifica de 

 las plantas Mexicanas was without result, nor could it be found 

 in the Nueva farmacopea Mexicana. In Suneon's monmnental 

 Dkcionnaire de la langue Nahuail, however (p. 701) the impor- 

 tance of this plant is attested by the following definitions: 

 '^XochipalU ou Xuchipalli, Herbe dont la feuille ressemble a celle 

 de I'artemise et sert a teindre les etoffes en jaune rouge; couleur 

 rouge, rose. RR. xochitl, palli." Robelo, also, in his Diccionario 

 de Aztequismos (p. 444) refers to it as follows: "Suchipal (Xochi- 

 palh: xochitl, flor; palli, color: 'flor-color,' 6 'color de flor'). 

 Yerba cuya hoja se parece a la artemisa, y sirve para tenir las 

 telas de amarillo, rojo 6 naranjado." On page 447, note 23, he 

 says: ''Esta planta no esta clasificada;" and on page 449, under 

 geographical names, he includes ''Xochipala (xochi-pal-la : 

 xochi-palli, 6 xuchi-palli, suchipal; la, variante de tla, particula 

 abundancial) :" ''Donde abunda el suchipal." 



In response to letters of inquiry the writer received replies 

 from several Mexican botanists, all of whom, following Hernan- 

 dez's description, were disposed to refer the plant in question to 

 the genus Tagetes, which includes the so-called "French" and 

 "African" marigolds of our gardens, both of which are flowers 

 of Mexican origin, held in high esteem by the Aztecs and used 

 by them in certain religious rituals. Dr. B. P. Reko of Oaxaca 

 referred it to Tagetes paiula and Dr. C. Conzatti thought that it 

 might possibly be Tagetes multiseta. In a letter dated July 5, 



- See Ximenes' translation of Hernandez, Cuatro Libros, Libr. 3, cap. 36. 

 1615. 



