MR HARDY ON BUTTERCUPS AND DAISIES. 13 



Marygolds simply golds, from the colour of the flower/'* In the vici- 

 nity of Newcastle this plant is entitled the Marygowlon, and in other 

 parts of Northumberland the gowlon, which appears to be the plural of 

 the word gold or gol in the Saxon or German form. Ray further in- 

 forms us that goulans is the name of the corn-marigold ; and as such, 

 it is a very apt translation of the Greek term Chrysanthemum, ** golde- 

 floure," applied by modern botanists to this plant. Buchanan, in the 

 Statistical Account of Scotland introductory to his History, alludes to 

 the corn-marigold under the term guild while mentioning one of the 

 western isles, called " Tyan, from an herb, which is prejudicial to 

 fruit, not unlike guild or loosestrife, but that it is of a more dilute 

 colour."t Under this celebrated name, it gave occasion to acts of the 

 Scottish Legislature, not only inflicting heavy penalties upon the far- 

 mer in whose land a single stalk of " guilde" should be found, but de- 

 nouncing him as ** ane traitour, quha leades and convoyes an hoist of 

 enemies in the Kingis lands or the Barones."| This was not, how- 

 ever, the only instance in which this ** splendid weed" disturbed the 

 serenity and peace of a kingdom. The lawgivers and landholders of 

 Denmark were likewise, from its noxious prevalence in the corn-fields, 



as derangements of the biliary system produce ** that false gold, the jaun- 

 dice.'^ In a similar manner, obstructions of the bile give origin in horses to 

 what is called the yellows. The bile has hence been pleonastically styled the 

 " yellow gall." Gaule (the Myrica Gale), though not confined to Britain, is 

 perhaps, from a secondary meaning of the last term, as being as " bitter as 

 the ga'." In some parts of Dumfriesshire, this plant is reckoned by the shep- 

 herds to be the gall of Scripture. 



* A collection of English words not generally used, &c. 



t History of Scotland, Book I. 



X Stat. Alex. 2. c. 18. Hailes' Ann. Scot, apudDi Jamieson. 



from it, and take the seconds shell that is peiowe : putte thereof as much as a walnut in m 

 cloth, and seth it wyth a pinte of water, that it be well boyled, and let it coole, and then 

 drink it. This hath been experimented, put thereof also in thy drinke." This author inci- 

 dentally admits us to what were the probable grounds of the efficacy of this ** simple,'' while 

 mentioning the colour of the inner rind. To its hue, probably, and the yellow dye it is capa- 

 ble of affording^ was it that with " gilt arms at his own weapons," it could overcome Jaun- 

 dice. And could it have found words, as Cowley has given to another herb with wmiUr cha« 

 racter, to assert its claims, doubtless they would have been Iwcked by some such testimony 

 as the following: — 



•* Nature's own patent gives me my command ; 

 See, here's her own sign-manual, here's her hand :" — 

 •♦ Whoever me dissects, would think, nay swear, 

 O'erflown with gall, I sick o' the jaundice were.*' 



