392 FLORA HISTORICA. 



marked with a dark red, by the blood of the 

 unhappy Mexicans whom the insatiable Spani- 

 ards slew in their own peaceful fields. 



M. Pirolle tells us, and with a greater degree 

 of probability, that these flowers were called 

 Tagetes, from the Greek tagc, meaning princi- 

 pality, which shows the rank these plants held 

 in the parterre. 



The Tagetes appears to have been introduced 

 into this country as long back as the year 1573, 

 and we conclude that they were called French 

 Marygolds from our having first received the 

 seed from France. Gerard says the African 

 Mary gold was first obtained " when Charles the 

 first Emperour of Rome, made a famous conquest 

 of Tunis ; whereupon it was called Flos Aphri- 

 canus, or Flos Tunetensis,'' But as these plants 

 do not grow naturally in Africa, we may conclude 

 that they were first received in Spain from South 

 America about the time Charles returned from 

 the coast of Africa, and in compliment to that 

 monarch for having given liberty to twenty-two 

 thousand Christian slaves, they were called 

 African Marygolds. 



The French call the larger kind Grand (Eillet 

 d'hide, Great Pink of India, and Rose d'Inde, 

 Indian Rose, and Tagetes Patida they name Petit 

 (Eillet dlndcy the Little Pink of India. 



