CALENDULA (U. S. P.)—CALENDULA. 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 very 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.