YELLOW 



C. falcata is a species which may be found in dry sandy soil 

 as far north as Massachusetts, with very woolly stems, crowded 

 linear leaves, and small, clustered flower-heads. 



WILD SUNFLOWER. 



Ilelianthus giganteus. Composite Family. 



Stejn. — Rough or hairy; from three to ten feet high ; branched above. 

 Leaves. — Lance-shaped ; pointed; rough to the touch, set close to the stem. 

 Flower-heads. — Yellow ; composed of both ray and disk-flowers. 



In late summer many of our lanes are hedged by this beauti- 

 ful plant, which, like other members of its family, lifts its yellow 

 flowers sunward in pale imitation of the great lifegiver itself. 



We have twenty-two different species of sunflower. 



H. divaricatus is of a lower growth, with opposite, widely 

 spreading leaves and larger flower-heads. 



H. annuus is the garden species familiar to all ; this is said 

 to be a native of Peru. Mr. Ellwanger writes regarding it : 

 *' In the mythology of the ancient Peruvians it occupied an im- 

 portant place, and was employed as a mystic decoration in an- 

 cient Mexican sculpture. Like the lotus of the East, it is equally 

 a sacred and an artistic emblem, figuring in the symbolism of 

 Mexico and Peru, where the Spaniards found it rearing its aspir- 

 ing stalk in the fields, and serving in the temple as a sign and a 

 decoration, the sun-god's officiating handmaidens wearing upon 

 their breasts representations of the sacred flower in beaten gold." 



Gerarde describes it as follows: "The Indian Sun, or the 

 golden floure of Peru, is a plant of such stature and talnesse that 

 in one Sommer, being sowne of aseede in April, it hath risen 

 up to the height of fourteen foot in my garden, where one floure 

 was in weight three pound and two ounces, and crosse over- 

 thwart the floure by measure sixteen inches broad." 



The generic name is from helios — the sun, and anthos — a 

 flower. 



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