134 



FLOWERS OF THE CORNFIELDS 



Corn Marigold (Chrysanthemum segetum, L.) 



In spite of its being addicted to cultivated ground, and its suspicious 

 status as a native, Corn Marigold is found in Neolithic beds near Edin- 

 burgh. Its present distribution is Europe, North Africa, and Western 

 Asia. It is not found in Hunts or Stirling in Great Britain, but 

 everywhere else. It was regarded as a colonist by Watson. 



The Corn Marigold is 

 entirely a cornfield plant, 

 being rarely found elsewhere 

 except as an escape from 

 such cultivated districts, 

 occasionally coming up in 

 allotments and gardens and 

 on waste ground. It is usu- 

 ally to be found on high 

 ground on dry, sandy, or 

 loamy hills. 



A field studded with 

 Corn Marigolds in flower is 

 a sight to be remembered. 

 It is a tall, branched plant, 

 with an erect, woody stem, 

 smooth, shiny, and rather 

 bluish-green. The leaves are 

 linear or oblong, narrowly 

 elliptic, stalked, egg-shaped 

 above, not downy, notched, 

 toothed; the stem-leaves are 

 alternate, stalkless, half- 

 clasping the stem, oblong or egg-shaped above, with few teeth. 



The flowerheads are golden-yellow (both disk and ray florets) and 

 stalked, terminal, solitary, large, Math leaf-like organs, with blunt, outer 

 membranous margin, brown in colour. The first Greek name refers to 

 the yellow colour of the flower. Small wart-like knobs occur on the 

 upper sides of the corolla segments in the disk and in the ray. 



This handsome plant is about 18 in. to 2 ft. high. Flowers are 



to be seen in June and July. It is an annual, propagated by seeds. 



The flowers are large and conspicuous, of a deep golden yellow, 



both ray and disk florets, the former female, the latter bisexual. But 



Photo. Dr. Somerville 1 



CORN MARIGOLD (Chrysanthemum segetum, L.) 



