hermore, the botanical title, Caltha,
of the Mare Blob, is got from _calathus_, a small round basket of
twigs or osiers made two thousand years and more ago, which the
concave golden bowl of the Marsh Marigold was thought to
resemble. Persephone was collecting wild flowers in a _Calathus_
when carried off by the admiring Pluto. The earliest use of the floral
name _Caltha_ occurs in Virgil's second Pastoral, "_Mollia luteola
pingit vaccinia Caltha_." The title Mare Blob comes from the
Anglo-Saxon, "_mere_" (a marsh), and "_bleb_" or "_blob_" (a
bladder). These flowers were the _flaventia lumina Calthoe_ of
Columella, described by Shakespeare in the _Winter's Tale_. They
are also known as "Bublicans," "Meadowbrights," "Crazies,"
"Christ's Eyes," "Bull's Eyes," "May Blobs," "Drunkards," "Water
Caltrops," and wild "Batchelor's Buttons." A tincture is made (H.)
from the whole plant when in flower, and may be given with
success for that form of bloodlessness with great impairment of the
whole health, known as pernicious anaemia. In toxic quantities the
marsh Marigold has produced in its provers, a pallid, yellow,
swollen state of the face, constant headache and giddiness, a
thickly-coated tongue, diarrhoea, a small rapid pulse sometimes
intermittent, heaviness of the limbs, and an [331] unhealthy,
eruptive state of the skin; so that the tincture of the plant in small,
well-diluted doses will slowly overcome this totality of symptoms,
and serve to establish a sound state of restored health. Five drops of
the tincture diluted to the third strength should be given three times
a day with water. Dr. Withering tells that on a large quantity of the
flowers being put in the bed-room of a girl subject to fits, the
attacks ceased; and an infusion of the flowers has been since given
with success for similar fits.

The Marsh Marigold has been called _Verrucaria_, because
efficacious in curing warts; also _Solsequia_, or _Solsequium_; and
Sponsa Solis, since the flower opens at the rising, and shuts at the
setting of the sun.

MARJORAM.

The common Marjoram (_Origanum_) grows frequently as a wild
labiate plant on dry, bushy places, especially in chalky districts
throughout Britain, the whole herb being fragrantly aromatic, and
bearing flowers of a deep red colour. When cultivated in our kitchen
gardens it becomes a favourite pot herb, as "Sweet Marjoram," with
thin compact spikes, and more elliptical leaves than the wild
Marjora