HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



193 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



By H. W. LETT, M.A. 



HE Helianthus or 

 sunflower (the Eng- 

 lish is a literal 

 translation of the 

 botanical name), of 

 which there are 

 thirty - five known 

 species, is a native 

 of America, from 

 whence it was first 

 brought to Europe 

 in the year 1597. 

 Owing to the re- 

 cent fashion in 

 favour of this showy 

 flower, it is familiar 

 to everybody, but 

 it is not so well 

 known that the 

 common garden 

 vegetable, the Jerusalem artichoke {Helianthus tube- 

 roses) is one of the same genus. The name "Jeru- 

 salem" is probably a corruption of the Italian 

 *'girasole" or "turn-sun," i.e., sunflower; while 

 the usurped title "artichoke" (to which it has 

 botanically speaking no right whatever) has reference 

 to the flavour of the tubers. Few persons in this 

 country have ever seen the flower of the Jerusalem 

 artichoke, which is seldom produced in the British 

 Isles, indeed it is not worth the trouble needed to 

 bring it to perfection, being a small yellow blossom 

 like that of the coltsfoot enlarged. 



The sunflower is largely grown in parts of France 

 for its seeds, which yield large quantities of oil and 

 oil-cake used for cattle food, and in certain regions 

 of America it is cultivated for the stems, which supply 

 sufficient fuel for cooking. 



The old Greeks and Romans had quite another 

 plant which they called Heliotropium or Heliotrope — 

 literally " Sunturning " — to which they attributed 

 many extraordinary and fabulous properties, amongst 

 others that described in its name of always turning 

 its open flowers to the sun ; this by some is considered 

 No. 285.— September 1888. 



to be the common Heliotropium Europaum of South 

 Europe, which is not much more than an insignificant 

 weed. The modern sweet-scented Peruvian Helio- 

 trope, or "Cherrypie," was not introduced from 

 South America till 1740, having been discovered 

 by the celebrated Jussieu when botanizing among the 

 Cordilleras. 



There is a wonderful jumble and confusion in the 

 minds of many about and between these two plants 

 Helianthus and Heliotropium. What the ancients 

 believed concerning their Heliotrope has been trans- 

 ferred without any reason, (except that the first part 

 of each name is the same) to the Helianthus, a name 

 given by the great Linnreus, on account of the 

 brilliant colour of the flowers, and their resembling 

 the typical representations of the sun — an orb 

 surrounded by a circle of tongues of flame. And the 

 idea thus associated with the plant, notwithstanding 

 its being disowned by such an authority as Sir 

 Joseph Paxton in his " Botanical Dictionary," is still 

 taught by our popular dictionaries, just as the poet 

 sings "how the sunflower turns on her god when he 

 sets the same look that she turned when he rose ! " 



I thought the notion had passed away from the 

 minds of modern botanists as a poet's fancy, till I 

 lately read in the "Journal of Microscopy and 

 Natural Science " for July 1886, an interesting paper 

 by Mr. H. W. S. Worsley-Bennison, F.L.S., Lecturer 

 on Botany at Westminster Hospital, on "The Power 

 of Movement in Plants," in which at p. 157 occurs 

 the following passage — " Positive Heliotropism, .... 

 Among flowers, the compositse furnish us with many 

 examples, one being specially prominent, the sun- 

 flower, whose peduncle twists in a circle during the 

 day, bringing its flower constantly towards the sun." 



When I perused this statement in print by such a 

 writer, though I was quite sceptical of any such 

 extraordinary Heliotropism, I resolved to test it 

 practically, and having done so I now send you the 

 result. 



A long row of fine sunflowers in an open space, 

 apart from walls or trees, in my garden, afforded a 

 most favourable opportunity ; and amongst them I 



K 



