PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
165 
weed in corn-fields, not very common in England, and 
said not to be a true native, but more common in Scotland, 
where it is called Goulands. I do not think this is the flower, 
because there is no proof, as far as I know, that it was called 
Marigold in Shakespeare’s time. 3. The Garden Marigold or 
Ruddes (Calendula officinalis ). I have little doubt this is the 
flower meant; it was always a great favourtie in our forefathers’ 
gardens, and it is hard to give any reason why it should not be 
so in ours. Yet it has been almost completely banished, and 
is now seldom found but in the gardens of cottages and old 
farmhouses, where it is still prized for its bright and almost 
everlasting flowers (looking very 
like a Gazania) and evergreen 
tuft of leaves, while the care¬ 
ful housewife still picks and 
carefully stores the petals of 
the flowers, and uses them in 
broths and soups, believing 
them to be of great efficacy, as 
Gerard said they were, “ to 
strengthen and comfort the 
heart;” though scarcely perhaps 
rating them as high as Fuller: 
“ we all know the many and 
sovereign vertues ... in your 
leaves, the Herb Generali in all 
pottage” (“ Antheologie,” 1655, 
The two properties of the Marigold—that it was always in 
flower, and that it turned its flowers to the sun and followed 
his guidance in their opening and shutting—made it a very 
favourite flower with the poets and emblem-writers. T. Forster, 
in the “Circle of the Seasons,” 1828, says that “ this plant 
received the name of Calendula, because it was in flower on 
the calends of nearly every month. It has been called Marigold 
for a similar reason, being more or less in blow at the times of 
all the festivals of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the word gold 
having reference to its golden rays, likened to the rays of light 
