MARIGOLD. 61 



previous to A.D. 1500. The dedication of the flower to 

 Queen Mary would naturally occur to the adherents of her 

 cause, and hence it is not surprising to find in a ballad of 

 her time, as quoted in " Notes and Queries" (S. 5, xii. 418), 

 such lines as the following : 



' ' To Mary our queen., that flower so sweet, 



This marigold I do apply ; 

 For that name doth seme so meet 



And property in each party. 

 For her enduring patiently 



The storms of such as list to scold 

 At her doings, without cause why, 



Loath to see spring this marigold." 



The flowers known as marigolds represent two distinct 

 genera of composites. The common weedy marigold 

 figured at page 61 is Calendula officinalis ; the generic 

 name implying that it keeps pace with the calendar that 

 is to say, it flowers every day throughout the year, which 

 is very nearly true. The great African marigold is 

 Tayetes erecta ; it is not African, but Mexican, as are also 

 the more refined French marigold, Tagetcs patula, and the 

 fine-leaved and the shining-cleaved kinds, T. tenuifolia and 

 T. lucida. The genus Tagetes is named in honour of an 

 obscure Etruscan hero of doubtful pedigree. It seems that 

 Jupiter had a son named Genius, and this Genius had a 

 son named Tages, who taught the Etruscans the art of 

 divination. In the fifteenth book of Ovid's " Metamor- 

 phoses" he is thus referred to in connection with the 

 transformation of Egeria : 



" The nymphs and Virbius like amazement fill'd, 

 As seized the swains who Tyrrhene furrows till'd, 

 When heaving up, a clod was seen to roll, 

 Untouch'd, self-mov'd, and big with human soul. 



