MARIGOLD. GRIEF. I ONCE saw, in a rich gallery of paintings, a pretty miniature, in which the artist had represented 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 follow his course from east to west. In July and August, these flowers emit, during the night, small luminous sparks. In this point they resemble the nasturtium and many other flowers of the same colour. The melancholy signification of the Marigold may be modified in a thousand ways. Combined with roses, the symbol expresses the bitter sweets and pleasant pains of love. Alone, it expresses grief; interwoven with other flowers, the varying events of life, the "mingled yarn of good and ill together." In the East, a bouquet of Marigolds and poppies expresses this thought-" I will allay your pain." It is more especially by such modifications that the Language of Flowers becomes the interpretation of our thoughts. Marguerite of Orleans, the maternal grandmother of Henry IV., chose for her armorial device a Marigold turning towards the sun, and for motto, "Je ne veux suivre que lui seul." By this device the virtuous princess conveyed the idea that all her thoughts and affections turned towards heaven, as the Marigold towards the sun. One of our older poets thus moralizes over this flower: When, with a serious musing, I behold The grateful and obsequious Marigold, How duly, every morning, she displays Her open breast when Phoebus spreads his rays; Still bending toward him her small slender stalk; How, when he down declines, she droops and mourns, Bedew'd as 'twere with tears till he returns; And how she veils her flowers when he is gone, As if she scorned to be looked upon By an inferior eye, or did contemn To wait upon a meaner light than him: Have spirits far more generous than ours, The servile fawnings and idolatries Wherewith we court these earthly things below, WITHERS. MIGIONETTE. YOUR QUALITIES SURPASS YOUR CHARMS. NEARLY one hundred hears have run their course since the Mignionette first bloomed in our climes. It was brought from Egypt. Linneus, who gave to it the name of Reseda odorata, compares its perfume with that of ambrosia; its fragrance is stronger at the rising and setting of the sun than at noon. Mignionette flowers from the beginning of spring to the end of autumn; but, by preserving it in a temperate green-house, its sweets may be inhaled in the winter season. It then becomes woody, lives many years, shoots up, and forms with care a shrub of the most charming appearance. No gorgeous flowers the meek Reseda grace, EVANS. |