Note 1940 — BOOK XXI. AN ACCOUNT OF FLOWERS, AND THOSE USED FOR CHAPLETS MORE PARTICULARLY.

“Concolori amplitudine.” Gronovius, with considerable justice, expresses himself at a loss as to the exact meaning of these words. If Sprengel and Salmasius are right in their conjectures that the Caltha of Pliny and Virgil is the marigold, our Calendula officinalis, the passage cannot mean that the flower of it is of the same size and colour with any variety of the violet mentioned in the preceding Chapter. From the description given of it by Dioscorides, it is more than probable that the Caltha of the ancients is not the marigold, and Hardouin is probably right in his conjecture that Pliny intends to describe a variety of the violet under the name. Fée is at a loss as to its identification.