MARIGOLD. This name has been given to several plants, of which the following are the best known : Calendula officinalis, the pot-marigold; Tagetes erecta, the African marigold; T. patula, the French marigold; and Chrysanthemum segetum, the corn marigold. All these belong to the family Compositae; but Caltha palustris, the marsh marigold (q.v.), belongs to the Ranunculaceae.
The first-mentioned is the familiar garden plant with large orange-coloured blossoms, and is probably not known in a wild state. There are now many fine garden varieties of it. The florets are unisexual, the "ray" florets being female, the "disk" florets male. This and the double variety have been in cultivation for at least three hundred years, as well as a proliferous form, C. proliferct, or the "fruitful marigolde" of Gerard (Herbal!, p. 602), in which small flower-heads proceed from beneath the cir cumference of the flower. The figure of "the greatest double marigold," C. multi flora maxima, given by Gerard (loc. cit., p.
600) is larger than most specimens now seen, being 3 in. in diame ter. He remarks of "the marigolde" that it is called Calendula "as it is to be seene to flower in the calends of almost euerie moneth." Tagetes patula, and T. erecta, the French and African mari golds, are natives of Mexico, and are equally familiar garden plants, having been long in cultivation. Gerard figures five varieties of Flos africanus, of the single and double kind (loc. cit., p. 609). Besides the above species the following have been introduced later: T. lucida, T. signata, also from Mexico, and T. tenuifolia from Peru.
Chrysanthemum segetum, the yellow corn marigold, is indi genous to Great Britain, and is frequent in corn-fields in most parts of England. When dried it has been employed as hay. It is also used in Germany for dyeing yellow.