148 HELIANTIIUS MAXIMILIANI. MAXIMILIAN's SUNFLOWER. 



Eno-lish, althouo-h the name is derived from the French, and 

 the fables and fancies connected with this flower have become 

 mixed with our own species, the common Sunflower, which, 

 however, like the whole genus, is specifically American. 



" The Sunflower turns to her god, when he sets, 

 The same look which she turned when he rose," 



sings Moore ; and many people, therefore, believe that the 

 Helianthus really follows the suns movement with its head. 

 It is amusing to note in this connection how eminent writers 

 will sometimes endeavor to explain on " philosophical princi- 

 ples" the reason of things that never happen. The writer of 

 this has now before him an old work, entitled " The Compleat 

 Florist," published in 1706. In this book we are told that 

 "the flower of this plant turns itself always towards the sun, 

 because, it being heavy, and its stalk heated and softened on 

 the side next the sun, it must naturally incline that way." Our 

 author's remarks are interesting, and his reasoning is certainly 

 not more out of the way than much of that which is brought for- 

 ward in connection with the philosophical questions of our day. 

 According to the myths of the ancients the Sunflower known 

 to them was originally a beautiful young girl named Clytia, who 

 fell in love with Phoebus, the sun-god. In the hope of seeing 

 Phoebus more frequently, she journeyed to the Isle of Rhodes, 

 but finding that the. god did not return her love, and that her 

 case was hopeless, she died of grief, and was changed to a 

 Sunflower. We repeat, however, that these old stories have no 

 immediate connection with Helianthus, as the whole of this 

 genus is strictly American, and was, therefore, wholly unknown 

 to the ancients. 



Explanation of the Plate. — i. End of a flowering branch. — 2. Lower portion of a 

 stem, with leaf. — 3. Enlarged floret and receptacle. — 4. Portion of the edge of the 

 leaf, showing, at S, S, S^ S, its subserrate character, with the spaces between minutely 

 serrulate. 



