g4 CALTHA PALUSTRIS. MARSH-MARIGOLD. 



opened simultaneously with the first appearance of this early 

 bird in that land. In our country we show our thankfulness for 

 spring in our spring-flower parties, to which violets and trailing 

 Arbutus chiefly pay tribute ; but in the older lands, where spring 

 does not come so soon, and is more important, they have formal 

 May-day festivals, and the " marsh-marigolds " enter largely into 

 the wreaths and garlands employed on these joyful occasions. 

 Some have supposed from its name, marigold, that it may have 

 at some time been dedicated to the Virgin Mary ; but this sug- 

 gestion shows how easy it is to be mistaken by similarities, for it 

 appears by Prior's researches that marigold is simply the viejse 

 7near-gcallia of the old Saxon language, and which simply 

 means " marsh-horse gold," and the earlier poets called it simply 

 " gold-flower " or " marsh gold-flower." 



The name adopted for its botanical one is of very ancient 

 origin, as it occurs in Vitruvius, Pliny, and other ancient Latin 

 authors ; but there seems to be an uncertainty as to what plant 

 was referred to. Pliny is believed to have had in mind a sort 

 of white violet when he uses the name. Some have thought 

 some species of Calendula — the common " pot-marigold " — 

 might be referred to, and of which one species, Calendula afvensis, 

 is found in Greece, growing on rocky hills ; but the old fable con- 

 nected with it seems to have an eye to some swamp or fountain- 

 loving plant, for the story goes that there was once a Sicilian boy 

 named Clymenon, a grandson of Patura, who was in love with 

 the Sun. Whenever night came he was so disconsolate that he 

 could hardly sleep, and he always rose betimes so as to get the 

 earliest glimpse of the object of his devotion. So passionate 

 became this sun-worship, that he would on no account pass a 

 moment in the shade. But once the sun remained under a cloud 

 for eight days. Clymenon sought by the aid of a fountain to 

 see some reflection of his beloved sun, but failing pined away, 

 and died! When at the end of its cloudy period the sun shone 

 out, it discovered the body of its true love. It pitied Clymenon, 

 and turned the body into a beautiful flower on the spot where he 



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