MARIGOLD. 
153 
MARIGOLD. 
GRIEF. 
I once saw, in a rich gallery of paintings, a 
pretty miniature, in which the artist had repre¬ 
sented Grief, under the form of a young man, 
pale and languishing, whose reclining head 
seemed bowed down by the weight of a wreath 
of Marigolds. 
Every body is familiar with this golden flower, 
which is a conventional emblem of distress of 
mind. It is distinguished by many singular 
properties. It blossoms the whole year; and, 
on that account, the Romans termed it the 
flower of the calends, in other words, of all the 
months. Its flowers are open only from nine in 
the morning till three in the afternoon. They, 
however, always turn towards the sun, and fol¬ 
low his course from east to west. In July and 
August these flowers emit, during the night, 
small luminous sparks. In this point they re¬ 
semble the nasturtium and many other flowers of 
the same colour. 
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