422 FLOWERS OF 



Drooping all night, and, when he warm returns, 

 Points her enamour'd bosom to his ray." 



Various poets have dwelt upon this as a favourite 

 comparison, and even philosophers have confirmed 

 their reports of the SunHower's turning itself round 

 with the course of the sun.* OVID says of his Sun- 

 flower (transformed from the nymph Clytia, who 

 vainly loved Apollo) 



" Still the lov'd object the fond leaves pursue, 

 Still move their root the moving sun to view." 



Dr. HUNTER, in his notes to Evelyn's Sylva, says " the 

 story of the Sunflower in Ovid's Metamorphoses is 

 confirmed by daily observation ;" though OVID'S plant 

 could not be the modern Peruvian Sunflower : and 

 Sir J. E. SMITH absolutely states that the stem is 

 compressed to facilitate the movements of the flower, 

 which, " after following the sun all day, returns after 

 sun-set to the east." So COWLET, in his Poemata 

 Latina Plantarum, thus makes the " Flos Solis" lo- 

 quitur : 



" Jpse meum semper submisso vertice adoro 



Semperque specto, semper observo patrem ; 

 Qua vertit vultus, vultus obverto sequaces, 

 Et semper haerent oculi in obtutu pio." 



With bending head submissive I adore, 

 With constant gaze my father's face explore, 

 I turn my face following where'er he turns, 

 Still fix'd my pious gaze as round he burns. 



* Dr. DARWIN in his Loves of the Plants, could not of course afford 

 to dispense with so poetical a simile, but quotes HALES' Vegetable Sta- 

 ticks for the fact that " the Sunflower follows the course of the sun by 

 nutation, not by twisting its stem." In his text the Dr. says 

 " With zealous step he climbs the upland lawn, 

 And bows in homage to the rising dawn ', 

 Imbibes with eagle eye the golden ray, 

 And watches, as it moves, the orb of day." 



