THE RED SUNFLOWER 373 



THE RED SUNFLOWER 



By Peofessob T. D. A. COCKERELL 



UNI\^RSITT OF COLORADO 



ONCE upon a time, in England, a certain bishop visited a Sunday- 

 scliool. Being asked to question the children, he inquired of a 

 small and timid boy, " Who made the world ? " Completely rattled, the 

 child made no answer. The bishop asked a second time, and, again 

 getting no result, exclaimed in some wrath, " Is it possible, my dear 

 boy, that you don't know who made the world ? " The youngster burst 

 into tears, and declared earnestly, " Please, sir, I didn't do it, indeed I 

 didn't do it ! " 



I have found this story useful in the discussions on the genesis of 

 the red sunflower. The first question people ask is even more direct 

 than that of the bishop, " How did you do it ? " The answer is, " We 

 did not do it, but — the author of the world is also the author of the red 

 sunflower." 



My wife and I have lived in New Mexico and Colorado for many 

 years, and have seen, I suppose, millions of sunflowers. So far as we 

 know, we had never seen a red one until 1910, nor had any one else, ex- 

 cepting some horticultural forms of a kind quite different from the 

 ordinary plant. The summer before last, in Boulder, Colorado, there 

 was a group of sunflowers growing by the road about a hundred yards 

 from our house. Having occasion to cross the road, my wife noticed 

 what she supposed to be a large butterfly, presumably one of the silver- 

 spots, on a sunflower head. Glancing at the plant a little later, she was 

 surprised to note that the butterfly had not moved, and approaching 

 nearer to satisfy her curiosity, found the red sunflower. There was no 

 butterfly; the red appearance was due to the rays, which were deeply 

 suffused with a fine chestnut red. There was only one plant, and this 

 close to the road, where hundreds of people passed daily. Already 

 some one had picked a head as a curiosity. Evidently it was not safe to 

 leave the plant where it was; it would almost surely be destroyed. We 

 had had no experience in transplanting sunflowers, especially in full 

 bloom, so we tried first with one of the common kind. Succeeding 

 well, we carefully dug up the red one, and removed it to our garden. 

 Here, on bended knees, it was carefully tended, and a contrivance was 

 arranged to protect it at first from the direct rays of the sun. It soon 

 recovered from the shock, and proceeded to bloom and go to seed in a 

 normal way. 



