In a wholly Elizabethan spirit Keats sang: Open afresh your round of starry folds, Ye ardent Marigolds! Dry up the moisture from your golden lids, For great Apollo bids That in these days your praises should be sung On many harps, which he has lately strung; And when again your dewyness he kisses Tell him I have you in my world of blisses! So happly when I rove in some far vale His mighty voice may come upon the gale. The Shakespearian marigold must not be confused with the French marigold (_Flos Africanus_), called also Indian gilliflower, flower of Africa, and flower of Tunis. A long chapter on this marigold appears in Parkinson's book. This is the tightly rolled up little flower of irregular ragged petals, but of a rich, deep golden hue. Parkinson also speaks of the great Peruvian sunflower, which he admires greatly and describes with enthusiasm. We know it well as our common sunflower with its dark center and yellow rays--a magnificent specimen of the floral world, worthy of the adoration of the Incas and of more than we usually accord to it. LARKSPUR (_Delphinium_). "Lark's-heels trim," one of the flowers in the introductory song of "The Two Noble Kinsmen," is the Delphinium, also called larkspur, lark's-claw, lark's-toes, and knight's-spur. The generic name is derived from the Greek _delphinium_, because the buds were thought to resemble the form of a dolphin. As with many other plants, there were two kinds, the "wild" and the "tame"; and it was the wild kind that was "nourished up in gardens," according to Parkinson, who describes the plant as having "small, long, green leaves, finely cut, almost like fennel and the branches ending in a long spike of hollow flowers with a long spur behind them. They are of several colors: bluish purple, or white, or ash color, or red, paler or deeper, and parti-colored of two colors in a flower. "They are called diversely by divers writers as _Consolida regulis_, _Calearis flos_, _Flos regius_, _Buccinum Romanorum_, and _Cuminum silvestre alterum Dioscoridis_; but the most usual name with us is _Delphinium_. But whether it be the true _Delphinium_ of Dioscorides, or the Poet's Hyacinth, or the Flower of Ajax, another place is fitter to discuss than this. We call them in English Larks-heels, Larkspurs, Larkstoes, or claws, and Monks-hoods. There is no use of any of these in Physicke in these days that I know, but are wholly spent for their flowers sake." A modern botanist remarks: