COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Originally single, the flower-head now appears in many forms 

 distinguished by size, color, and degree of doubling; in color it 

 varies from pale-yeUow to deep-orange. 



AFRICAN MARIGOLD 



Tagetes erecta. 



Tagetes, derived from Tages, an Etruscan deity. 



An erect annual herb introduced from Mexico, and greatly changed 

 from its primitive form by the French gardeners of the sixteenth century. 

 Midsummer. 



Stem. — Erect, more or less branched, two feet high. 



Leaves. — Opposite; pinnately divided; segments lanceolate. 



Flower-heads. — Solitary at the summit of the stem; yellow or orange; 

 the ray-florets in a single series, normally five, the disk-florets tubular; 

 transformed into rays by cultivation. 



Involucre. — One series of bracts more or less grown together. 



Receptacle. — Convex, naked; stem swollen and hollow just below. 



Akenes. — Oblong, angular; pappus a membranous cup with two 

 awns. 



The African Marigold obtained its common name from a mis- 

 apprehension on the part of the French gardeners as to its native 

 land. By the time the mistake was tmderstood the name was 

 fixed and has continued ever since. The plant is one of the most 

 sturdy, upstanding, and trustworthy of garden creatures. It 

 requires good soil and should not be crowded, as it needs free 

 circulation of air among its stems. In the primitive form the 

 rays were few and the disk-florets tubular, but the skill of the 

 French gardeners soon converted these into rays. There are, 

 however, in most double flower-heads a few florets still tubular, 

 but these are not seen- unless looked for. The gardener's ideal 

 is that there should be none of these. The finer strains now sup- 

 plied by the florists are wonderfully regular, full-rayed, and vary 

 on the chord of yellow from pale-lemon to deep-orange. A bed 

 of these makes a cloth of gold in the garden, which lasts long, 



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