352 Yellow to Orange Flowers 



florets. The leaves are lance-shaped and very rough to the 

 touch. 



The Irish poet, Moore, referring to this flower as an 

 emblem of constancy, has sung that 



" The Sunflower turns on her god when he sets 

 The same look which she turn'd when he rose." 



But fact, unfortunately, refuses to corroborate his romantic 

 fancy for alas! the Hclianthus does not turn its big golden 

 flower- face from east to west to follow the course of the sun 

 god, but, on the contrary, remains in the same position all 

 day long. 



In olden days, in Peru and Mexico, this flower occupied 

 an important place both in the mythology and in the sculpture 

 of the country, and also was employed as a mystic and sacred 

 emblem by the inhabitants. The maidens who waited upon 

 the sun god in the temple wore on their breasts representa- 

 tions of it executed in beaten gold, and it also was ex- 

 tensively cultivated in the gardens of the priests. 



The ancient Greeks believed that the Hclianthus was the 

 incarnation of the nymph Clytie, who by reason of her great 

 love for Apollo sat for nine days upon the ground intently 

 gazing at the orb of day, until at length she became rooted 

 to the earth and her face was transformed into the shining 

 disk of the Sunflower. 



All these legends tend, perhaps, to increase our interest in 

 this handsome plant, whose brilliant-hued blossoms burn 

 with a golden light in the mountain thickets and whose 

 leaves make a waving of slight shadows across the land. 



