3G3 FLORA inSTORICA. 



play of gold, were still more astonished, when, 

 in May, they saw the fields covered with these 

 flowers, which had been so closely imitated by 

 the artificers of the New World, that the precious 

 ore appeared less admirable than the workman- 

 ship in the eyes of these rapacious conquerors. 



The Sun-flower is made the emblem of false 

 riches, because gold of itself, however abundant, 

 cannot render a person truly rich. It is related 

 of Pytheus of Lydia, that possessing valuable 

 mines of gold, he entirely neglected the culti- 

 vation of his lands, which naturally became so 

 unproductive as not to afford the common neces- 

 saries of life. His wife, who showed herself 

 possessed of as much good sense as wit, at a 

 banquet supper which Pytheus had ordered to be 

 prepared, she directed that all the dishes should 

 be filled with gold in different shapes and states 

 instead of viands. On the removal of the covers 

 this ingenious woman exclaimed to the guests, I 

 set before you what we have in greatest abun- 

 dance, for we cannot reap what we do not sow. 

 This lesson made a proper impression on the 

 mind of Pytheus, who acknowledged that Provi- 

 dence distributes her various riches like a tender 

 mother, who has love for all her offspring, how- 

 ever numerous. 



The gaudy Sun-flower naturally brings to mind 



