EDNOTE. Lest anyone has forgotten----the "marygold" issue came up when VN dissected a translation goof by Wallace Fowlie of a Rimbaud poem.
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
To: don barton johnson
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2004 5:50 AM
Subject: Marigold, Marsh marigold, Picăo

Marigold

Botanical: Calendula officinalis (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Compositae

 
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Second Source: Marygold
Caltha officinalis. Golds. Ruddes. Mary Gowles. Oculus Christi. Pot Marigold. Marygold. Fiore d'ogni mese. Solis Sponsa.
The Common Marigold is familiar to everyone, with its pale-green leaves and golden orange flowers. It is said to be in bloom on the calends of every month, hence its Latin name, and one of the names by which it is known in Italy - fiore d'ogni mese - countenances this derivation. It was not named after the Virgin, its name being a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon merso-meargealla, the Marsh Marigold. Old English authors called it Golds or Ruddes. It was, however, later associated with the Virgin Mary, and in the seventeenth century with Queen Mary. 
It was well known to the old herbalists as a garden-flower and for use in cookery and medicine. Dodoens-Lyte (A Niewe Herball, 1578) says:
'It hath pleasant, bright and shining yellow flowers, the which do close at the setting downe of the sunne, and do spread and open againe at the sunne rising.' Linnaeus assigned a narrower limit to the expansion of its flowers, observing that they are open from nine in the morning till three in the afternoon. This regular expansion and closing of the flowers attracted early notice, and hence the plant acquired the names of solsequia and solis sponsa. There is an allusion to this peculiarity in the poems of Rowley: 'The Mary-budde that shooteth (shutteth) with the light.'  And in the Winter's Tale: 'The Marigold that goes to bed wi' th' sun, And with him rises weeping.'
It has been cultivated in the kitchen garden for the flowers, which are dried for broth, and said to comfort the heart and spirits.
Fuller writes: 'We all know the many and sovereign virtues in your leaves, the Herbe Generalle in all pottage.' (Antheologie, 1655.) Stevens, in Maison Rustique, or the Countrie Farme (1699), mentions the Marigold as a specific for headache, jaundice, red eyes, toothache and ague. The dried flowers are still used among the peasantry 'to strengthen and comfort the hart.' He says further: 'Conserve made of the flowers and sugar, taken in the morning fasting, cureth the trembling of the harte, and is also given in the time of plague or pestilence. The yellow leaves of the flowers are dried and kept throughout Dutchland against winter to put into broths, physicall potions and for divers other purposes, in such quantity that in some Grocers or Spicesellers are to be found barrels filled with them and retailed by the penny or less, insomuch that no broths are well made without dried Marigold.' Formerly its flowers were used to give cheese a yellow colour.  In Macer's Herbal it is stated that only to look on Marigolds will draw evil humours out of the head and strengthen the eyesight.
'Golde [Marigold] is bitter in savour
Fayr and zelw [yellow] is his flowur
Ye golde flour is good to sene
It makyth ye syth bryth and clene
Wyscely to lokyn on his flowres
Drawyth owt of ye heed wikked hirores
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Loke wyscely on golde erly at morwe [morning]
Yat day fro feures it schall ye borwe:
Ye odour of ye golde is good to smelle.' 
'It must be taken only when the moon is in the Sign of the Virgin and not when Jupiter is in the ascendant, for then the herb loses its virtue. And the gatherer, who must be out of deadly sin, must say three Pater Nosters and three Aves. It will give the wearer a vision of anyone who has robbed him.' From Eleanour Sinclair Rohde's Old English Herbals: 'Of marygold we learn that Summe use to make theyr here yelow with the floure of this herbe, not beyng contet with the naturall colour which God hath geven the.' Gerard speaks of: 'The fruitful or much-bearing marigold, . . . is likewise called Jackanapes-on-horsebacke: it hath leaves stalkes and roots like the common sort of marigold, differing in the shape of his floures; for this plant doth bring forth at the top of the stalke one floure like the other marigolds, from which start forth sundry other small floures, yellow likewise and of the same fashion as the first; which if I be not deceived commeth to pass per accidens, or by chance, as Nature often times liketh to play with other flowers; or as children are borne with two thumbes on one hande or such like; which living to be men do get children like unto others: even so is the seed of this Marigold, which if it be sowen it brings forth not one floure in a thousand like the plant from whence it was taken.' Culpepper says it is a: 'herb of the Sun, and under Leo. They strengthen the heart exceedingly, and are very expulsive, and a little less effectual in the smallpox and measles than saffron. The juice of Marigold leaves mixed with vinegar, and any hot swelling bathed with it, instantly gives ease, and assuages it. The flowers, either green or dried, are much used in possets, broths, and drink, as a comforter of the heart and spirits, and to expel any malignant or pestilential quality which might annoy them. A plaister made with the dry flowers in powder, hog's-grease, turpentine, and rosin, applied to the breast, strengthens and succours the heart infinitely in fevers, whether pestilential or not.'
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Third Google source: ( while copying them, I lost the references for each site!)
MARSH MARIGOLD: The Marigold is a native of south Europe. Seeds sown in April, in any soil, in sunny, or half-sunny places germinate freely. The plants will begin to flower in June, and continue flowering until the frost kills them. They will increase from year to year, if allowed to seed themselves.Only the common deep orange-flowered variety is of medicinical value.
Scientific Name Caltha palustris
Common Name Marsh marigold
Family :Ranunculaceae 
Plant Description : Herbaceous perennial; leaves rounded to heart-shaped, mostly basal; flowers yellow, 5-6-parted; fruits dry with red seeds.
Distribution: Native locally in mountains; cultivated.
Where Found: Forest or natural area, marshy ground in mountains.
Caltha palustris L.
yellow marsh marigold
Symbol: CAPA5
Group: Dicot
Family: Ranunculaceae
Growth Habit: Forb/herb
Duration: Perennial
U.S. Nativity: Native
Kingdom Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
                  Subclass Magnoliidae
Order Ranunculales
                        Family Ranunculaceae – Buttercup family
                            Genus Caltha L. – marsh marigold
                              
Caltha palustris L. – yellow marsh marigold
 
Photograph of Caltha palustris
 
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Fourth Google source: PICĂO
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Bidens
Species: pilosa
Synonyms: Bidens adhaerescens, B. alausensis, B. chilensis, B. hirsuta, B. leucantha, B. montaubani, B. reflexa, B. scandicina, B. sundaica, Coreopsis leucantha, Kerneria pilosa
Common Names: Picăo preto, carrapicho, amor seco, pirca, aceitilla, cadillo, chilca, pacunga, cuambu, erva-picăo, alfiler, clavelito de monte, romerillo, saltillo, yema de huevo, z’aiguille, jarongan, ketul, pau-pau pasir, Spanish needles, bident herisse, herbe d’aiguille, zweizahn, bidente piloso, mozote, beggar’s tick
Picao Preto - Bidens pilosa - Picao Preto - Bidens pilosa - Picao Preto - Bidens pilosa
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Fifth Google source:
 
 

Picăo preto is a small, erect annual herb that grows to 1 m high. It has bright green leaves with serrated, prickly edges and produces small, yellow flowers and black fruit. Its root has a distinctive aroma similar to that of a carrot. It is indigenous to the Amazon rainforest and other tropical areas of South America, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Philippines. It is often considered a weed in many places. It is a southern cousin to Bidens tripartita, the European bur marigold, which has an ancient history in European herbal medicine. In Brazil, the plant is most commonly known as picăo preto or carrapicho; in Peru it is known as amor seco or pirca.