The Peoples Songbag

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31582, 20 January 1968, Page 17

The Peoples Songbag

Gold Flower

(Specially written for “The Press’* by DERRICK ROONEY) The gillyflower shall deck thy head. Thy way with herbs I’ll strew; Thy stockings shall be of the marigold. Thy gloves of the violet blue This verse from the English folk-song, “The Seeds of Love,” may be no great shakes as poetry, but in a few lines it summarises much of the symbolism people have seen embodied in some of the common garden flowers. The marigold may serve as an example. Calendulr. officionalis, the common English species—not to be confused with African or French marigolds—is in folk-lore the emblem of constancy. Its original home was in the Mediterranean, and it was the “gold flower” of the Greeks, but it has been cultivated in Britain so long that it has become naturalised there. It is also a bit of a weed in this country, but one to which only the most nar-row-minded of gardeners could object. Even by Shakespeare's time the marigold had acquired a considerable body of folk-lore, to which Shakespeare referred in passing in “The Winter’s Tale”: “The marigold that goes to bed wi’ the sun, and with him rises weeping.” The legend of the

marigold’s origin explains Shakespeare’s reference. A beautiful maiden fell in love with the sun-god, lived only to see him, and stayed all night in the corn-field to ensure that she caught his earliest glance. Eventually she wasted away, and her spirit rose and was absorbed in the sun. Where she had last stood "grew the first marigold, its floret resembling the sun and its petals tears. The name “marigold”— Mary’s flow —dates from the Middle Ages. Before that it was called simply “golde,” after its colour. Other names for it have included “Mary gowles,” “dyall,” “summer’s bride,” “ruddes,” “pot marigold,” and “shining herb.” “Pot marigold” refers to the use—not so long ago—of the dried petals in the cooking pot, as a flavouring for soups and stews. John Gerard wrote in his “herball” in the seventeenth century that, “The yellow leaves of the floures are dried and kept throughout Dutchland against winter, to put into broths, in physical! potions, and for divers other purposes, in such quantity, that in some grocer’s or spice seller’s houses are to be found barrels filled with them, and retailed by the penny more or less, insomuch that no broths are well made without dried marigolds.” Like all the other herbs, the marigold was put to medicinal use. Gerard found it

excellent for curing inflammation of the eyes, and during the American Civil War the petals were used to treat wounds The botanical name, by the way, is based on its habit of flowering in every month of the calendar. French and African marigolds, which bear the botanical name “Tagetes,” from Tages, an Etruscan god, are South American in origin, and were first grown in Europe from seeds brought back by Spanish adventurers from the New World. They, too, have their folk-lore; the reddish hues on many of the petals are said to be the blood of Aztecs murdered by the Spaniards. Gerard found the French marigold, introduced to England by Huguenot refugees in 1572, an odious plant “We gave to a cat the floures with their cups, tempered with fresh cheese; shee forthwith mightly swelled, and a little while after died.” From this Gerard concluded that the French marigold was “most venomous and full of poison, and therefore not to be touched or smelled unto, much lesse used in meat or medicine.” Some insecticideshy gardeners today grow a few French marigolds among their tomatoes and potatoes, for they are said discourage aphides, and their roots are said to exude ■ substance toxic to a soil pest called root knot eelworm.