364 FLORA HISTORICA. 



Thunberg, who visited Japan about the year 

 1775, for the purpose of making discoveries in 

 botany, tells us that these plants are cultivated by 

 those jealous and cautious islanders ; and Loureiro 

 notices that the Tagetcs is also cultivated in China, 

 Cochin- China, and many parts of India ; but he 

 remarks that it is not indigenous in those countries. 

 Hernandez mentions it as a native of Mexico, in 

 his history of that country ; and the plants of the 

 Tagetes, which flowered in the Eltham garden as 

 long back as 1727, were raised from seeds sent 

 direct from Mexico. 



The students of botany will find these plants 

 placed in the Second Order of the Nineteenth Class 

 of Linnaeus''s Sexual System, on account of the 

 flowerets of the disk being bisexual, and those of the 

 radius containing only female organs ; whereas those 

 of the Mary gold, Calendula, stand in the fourth 

 order of the same class, the flowrets of the disk in 

 the latter containing only anthers, and those of the 

 margin only stigmas. The Mexican flower also 

 differs fj'om the European Mary gold in not closing 

 its petals at night, a gift of nature so frequently 

 noticed by our poets : — 



The Mary-budde that shutteth with the lif^ht. 



CllATTERTOy. 



Tlie Marygold, that goes to bed with tlie sun, 

 And with him rises weeping. 



Shakspeare. 



