MARIGOLD. 
Tagetes ereela, 
LATER illustration of a very 
humble marigold has suggested 
homely thoughts, and the re- 
sult is a merely gossiping 
paper; but the showy flower 
now before us demands a 
learned treatise, and we must 
show that we are equal to the 
inspwiting theme. We shall 
therefore dive into the depths 
of our erudition, and thence 
rebound to the highest heights 
of philosophy, in the endeavour 
to display to the reader the 
immensity of our knowledge of 
marigolds. 
uf A marigold may be re- 
garded as a golden Mary, but the name has no necessary 
reference whatever to the Virgin Mary, or to any Mary ; 
it is a corruption of the old Anglo-Saxon merse-mear- 
gealla, the golden marsh flower (ca/¢tia), which is. still 
ealled the “marsh marigold,” although it is really a 
ranuneculus. The marigold proper is a composite plant, 
and far removed from the ranunculus and all its cup- 
G 
