324 



C A L 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL ; 



C A L 



mon simple, many-leaved, almost upright ; segments linear- 

 Janceolate, (fourteen to twenty,) nearly equal. Corolla : com- 

 pound radiate ; corollules hermaphrodite, very many in the 

 disk ; females the number of rays in the calix, very long in 

 the ray : proper of the hermaphrodite tubular, semiquinquefid, 

 the length of the calix ; of the female, ligulate, very long, 

 three-toothed, villose at the base, nerveless. Stamina : (her- 

 maphrodite) filamenta five, capillary, very short ; antherae 

 cylindric, tubular, the length of the corollule. Pistil: her- 

 maphrodite ; germen oblong ; style filiform, scarcely the 

 length of the stamina; stigma obtuse, bifid, straight. Fe- 

 males ; germen oblong, three-cornered ; style filiform, the 

 length of the stamina ; stigmas two, oblong, acuminate, re- 

 flex. Pericarp : none.; calix converging, roundish, depressed. 

 Seeds: hermaphrodite, central of the disk, none ; of the 

 circumference, seldom solitary, membranous, obcordate, 

 compressed ; females solitary, larger, oblong, incurved, 

 triangular, with membranous angles, marked on the outside 

 longitudinally, with the figure of a vegetable. Down : none. 

 Receptacle : naked, flat. The flowers are commonly solitary, 

 and terminating. The species are, 



1 . Calendula Arvensis ; Field Marygold. Seeds boatform, 

 muricated, bent in ; the outmost erect, protended. Root 

 annual ; stalk slender, branching, spreading near the ground ; 

 leaves narrow, spear-shaped, hairy, half surrounding the stalk 

 at their base ; flowers produced at the extremity of the 

 branches, upon long naked peduncles, they are very small, 

 and of a pale yellow colour ; the florets of the ray are very 

 narrow, as are also the leaves of the calix. It flowers most 

 part of the summer, and is a native of Sweden, Germany, 

 Switzerland, France, Carniola, Italy, and Spain. If the seeds 

 of the Field Marigold be permitted to scatter, there will be 

 a fresh supply of young plants, so that from May, when the 

 flowers first appear, till the frost puts a stop to them, there 

 will be a succession of plants in flower. 



2. Calendula Sancta ; Palestine Marigold. Seeds pitcher- 

 form, obovate, even ; calices submuricated. This is very 

 like the foregoing species, but the calix is muricated on the 

 outside. Mr. Miller informs us, that the leaves are much 

 larger than those of the former sort, but yet not so large as 

 those of the Garden Marigold ; and that the flowers are of a 

 middle size between the two others, and of a very pale 

 yellow colour. 



3. Calendula Officinalis ; Garden Marigold. Seeds all 

 boat-form, muricated, bent in. This differs from the Field 

 Marigold not only in the seeds, but in having a loftier stem, 

 more divaricated, pubescent, and pale green, as are also 

 the leaves ; these are longer and less sinuated, the lower and 

 middle leaves ovate and blunt, the upper ones lanceolate. 

 Native of France, in the vineyards ; of Italy in the corn- 

 fields ; of Silesia, in orchards, gardens, and fields ; flower- 

 ing most part of the summer. The golden splendour of this 

 flower, says Bauhin, ennobled this plant before it was known 

 to be of any use. It has however been cultivated time out 

 of mind in kitchen gardens for the flowers, which were 

 dried in order to be boiled in broth ; from a fancy that they 

 are comforters of the heart and spirits. Linneus accordingly 

 says, that they may be used in a double dose, as a succe- 

 daneum to Saffron ; but modern practice has little confl- 

 uence in these supposed cordials. The common, or officinal 

 Marigold, is a plant which is now much out of use in the 

 materia medica, and has probably been commended beyont 

 its merit as an aperient and detergent in visceral obstruc- 

 tions, jaundice, and menstrual suppressions. It has also been 

 considered as useful in the scrofula of children, eaten in the 

 manner of a salad. There is a certain acrimony in the 



>lant, insomuch that it has even been commended as an 

 extirpator of warts. Formerly, the flowers were very much 

 esteemed as preservatives against pestilential disorders, 

 either chewed, or infused in vinegar ; or the juice itself, 

 drank to the quantity of some ounces. It has been highly 

 recommended in the plague itself, by some writers, and is 

 esteemed a powerful sudorific ; the leaves are supposed to 

 be more efficacious than the flowers. It has been asserted, 

 that a Marigold flower, nibbed on the affected part, is an 

 admirable remedy for the pain and swelling caused by the 

 sting of a wasp or bee. According to Hill, an infusion of 

 the fresh -gathered flower is good in fevers ; it gently pro- 

 motes perspiration, and throws out any thing which ought to 

 appear on the skin. Meyrick says, a water distilled from them 

 is good for inflamed and sore eyes : a decoction of the flowers, 

 in posset drink, is much used among country people, as an ex- 

 pulsive in the small-pox and measles. The leaves of the plant, 

 when chewed, at first communicate a viscid sweetness, which 

 is followed by a sharp penetrating taste, very durable in the 

 mouth, but not of the hot or aromatic kind, but rather of a 

 saline nature. The expressed juice, which contains the 

 greatest part of this pungent matter, has been given in doses 

 of two or three ounces, i cases of costiveness, in which 

 it is very efficacious ; and it likewise promotes the other 

 secretions of the body in general. Snuffed up the nose, it 

 excites sneezing, and a discharge of mucus from the head. 

 Linneus observes, that the flowers of this plant are open from 

 nine in the morning till three in the afternoon. This regular 

 expansion and closing of the flowers attracted early notice, 

 and hence this plant acquired the names of solsequia and 

 solis sponsa. There is an allusion to this property in the 

 poems ascribed to Rowley : 



" The Mary-budde that shootcthe (shutteth) with tlie light." 



But more fully thus by Shakspeare, 



" The Marigold, that goes to bed wi' tli' sun, 

 " And with him rises weeping." 



Of the garden Marigold, there are the following varieties : 

 1. The single. 2. The common double-flowering. 3. The 

 largest very double-flowering. 4. The double lemon-co- 

 loured. 5. The greater and smaller ChildingMarigold, called 

 by Gerarde, fruitful or much-bearing Marigold. There are 

 other trifling varieties not worth observation. This plant, in 

 German, is called gewohnlicken, ringelblume, goldblume, dot- 

 terblume, gilkenbutterblume, gemeine sonnenivendes, haus- 

 sonnenwirbel, weckbroselchen, todtenblume ; in Dutch, tammc 

 goudbloem ; in Swedish, ringblomma ; in Danish, almin. 

 koeblomme, solsikke, soelsik ; in English, Common or Garden 

 Marigold or Marygold; by old authors, Golds or Ruddes. 

 Golds, or Gouldes, is a name among the country people, not 

 only for this but for Chrysanthemum Segetum, any sort of 

 Hawkweed, and, in short, for most yellow flowers of the 

 genesia class. The fondness of the British for tacking Chris- 

 tian names to animals and plants, is well known ; the Virgin 

 Mary, in particular, has sanctified many of the latter. The 

 French term the garden Marigold souci du jardin ; the Ita- 

 lians, calendula ortense, fiorrando, fore d'ogni mese, which 

 latter name countenances the derivation of Calendula from 

 the calends ; the Spaniards and Portuguese also call it calen- 

 dula ortense, and the latter sometimes term it maravilhn Ims- 

 tarda ; in Russian, its name is nogotki. The seeds of tlw 

 single garden Marigold will come up of themselves, if the v 

 are permitted to scatter : the varieties are supposed to haw- 

 been originally obtained from the seeds of the single sort, 

 but most of these differences continue, if the seeds be pro- 



