432 pPaat "bore, "heQeriOf, aael "bLjric/, 



Daisy, to St. Margaret of Hungary, who was martyred in the 

 thirteenth century; but in an old legend it is stated 



"There is a double flowret, white and red, 

 That our lasses call Herb Margaret, 

 In honour of Cortona's penitent, 

 Whose contrite soul with red remorse was rent ; 

 While on her penitence kind Heaven did throw 

 The white of purity surpassing snow ; 

 So white and red in this fair flower entwine, 

 Which maids are wont to scatter at her shrine." 



This St. Margaret of Cortona, who in mediaeval days was very popu- 

 lar, had for some years, says Mrs. Jameson, led an abandoned life, 

 but having repented and been canonised, she was regarded by the 

 people of her native town as a modern Magdalene ; and, like her 

 prototype, was supposed, on account of her early habits, to preside 

 over uterine diseases, and others peculiar to young women. The 

 Daisy, and other flowers which were supposed from their shape 

 to resemble the Moon, were by the ancients dedicated to the virgin 

 goddess of the night, Artemis, or Diana : but in Christian times 

 were transferred to the two saints who replace her, namely, St. 

 Mary Magdalene and St. Margaret of Cortona. Dr. Prior, in his 

 work on plant names, points out that this latter saint has often 

 been confounded with a St. Margaret of Antioch, who was " invoked 

 as another Lucina, because in her martyrdom she prayed for lying- 

 in-women." This maiden of Antioch is described in old metrical 

 legends as 



" Maid Marguerite that was so meeke and milde." 



The Daisy has been connecfted with several eminent women of the 

 name of Margaret. Margaret of Anjou wore the flower as her de- 

 vice, and had it embroidered on the robes of her courtiers. Lady 

 Margaret, the mother of Henry VH., wore three white Daisies ; 

 Margaret, the sister of Francis I., also wore the Daisy, and was 

 called by her brother his Marguerite of Marguerites — his pearl of 

 pearls. (See Daisy). 



MARIGOLD.— The African Marigold (Tagetes ereda) is 

 regarded as a sacred flower in Northern India, where the natives 

 adorn the trident emblem of Mahadeva with garlands of it ; and 

 both men and women wear chaplets made of its flowers on his 



festival. The Romans named the European Marigold Calendula 



— the flower of the Calends — from a notion that it blossoms the 



whole year. In the oldest of English herbals, the ' Grete Herball,' 



the Marigold is called Mary Gowles, but by the old poets it is 

 frequently alluded to as Gold simply, and it is still called Goules 

 or Goulans in some counties of England. Another old English 



name for these flowers was Ruddes. From its tawny yellow 



blossom the Marigold is presumed to have been the Chvusanthemon, 



or Gold Flower, of the Greeks. In mediaeval times, this flower, 



along with numerous others, was dedicated by the monks and nuns 



