History.—Calendula is a native of South Europe and the Orient. It is a common garden herb, with a feeble, aromatic, somewhat narcotic, though not unpleasant smell, and a salty, austere, rather disagreeable taste. The leaves, and more generally the flowers are used, and impart their active properties to alcohol or boiling water. The dried plant has a much weaker odor and taste. The dried flower heads are occasionally found in commerce. The French and the African marigold of our gardens, Tagetes erecta, Linné, and Tagetes patula, Linné, respectively, natives of the tropics, have been sold for true calendula, and it is believed that much of the fluid preparations of calendula are prepared from these plants.
Description.—"Florets about 12 Mm. (1/2 inch) long, linear and strap-shaped, delicately veined in a longitudinal direction, yellow or orange-colored, 3-toothed above, the short, hairy tube enclosing the remnants of a filiform style, terminating in 2 elongated branches; odor slight and somewhat heavy; taste somewhat bitter and faintly saline"—(U S. P.).
Specific Indications and Uses.—Locally, to wounds and injuries to prevent suppuration and promote rapid healing. Internally, to aid local action, and in chronic suppuration., capillary engorgement, varicose veins, old ulcers, splenic and hepatic congestion.
King's American Dispensatory, 1898, was written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D.
