N. ORD.-COMPOSIT&. : | 83 
Tribe.—SENECIONIDEA. 
GENUS.—HELIANTHUS ; LINN, 
SEX. SYST.—SYNGENESIA FRUSTRANEA. 
HELIANTHUS. 
SUNFLOWER, 
SYN.—HELIANTHUS ANNUUS, LINN. 
eT ae eee ee (GER.) SONNENBLUME; (FR.) LE TOURNE- 
TINCTURE OF THE RIPE ACHENIA OF HELIANTHUS ANNUUS, LINN. 
Description.—This commonly cultivated plant, springing from an annual 
root, attains a height of from 3 to 18 or more feet, and bears numerous large flower- 
heads on long peduncles. Séem erect, rounded and rough, bearing opposite 
leaves below and alternate ones above. Leaves petioled, broadly ovate or heart- 
shaped, from 5 to ro inches long, and 4 to 8 inches broad, rough and conspicuously 
3-ribbed. Peduncles long, gradually thickening into a funnel-form base at the 
involucre. /zvolucre composed of ovate aristate, hirsute scales, imbricated in 
‘several rows. Vower-heads many, nodding, bearing innumerable ray and many 
"disk florets; they range from 6 to 12 inches in diameter witha flat or convex disk. 
Ray-florets numerous, ligulate and neutral. D¢sk-florets, all perfect and fertile, 
with short 5-lobed tubes, decemneurate. allen grains ovate, beset with nume- 
rous rows of spines. Ovary 1-celled; style invested with stiff hairs; stigma 2- 
branched, with subulate appendages. Achenia ovate-oblong or cuneiform, some- 
what quadrangularly compressed, without margins, each achenium bearing 2 ear- 
like chaffy scales, sometimes accompanied by an accessory pair, all of which fall 
away when the seed is ripe. A description of the natural order will be found 
under Eupatorium purpureum. 
History and Habitait.—The sunflower is one of the natives of tropical 
America, that has become popular in cultivation in many countries, both on ac- 
beautiful flowers, whose bright chrome rays, in their many modes of 
ng ina circle about the handsome seal-brown disk, render it 
attractive as a garden ornament, as well as the many uses to which the seeds 
are put. From points where it is cultivated it often spreads about in many places 
by spontaneous growth, blossoming from July until August. ine witte central 
pith of the stalk contains nitre; this fact has led to its use asa diuretic, and recom- 
mended it also as a form of moxa. The leaves, when carefully cared for and 
* ids, the sun, 4/03;, a flower. 
count of its 
curling and reflexi 
