I70 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



HELIOTROPES, OR SUNFLOWERS. 



The designation which we have adopted for this 

 chapter is simply intended to intimate that we de- 

 sire to include under it such observations as we 

 purpose to make on plants which conspicuously 

 turn themselves towards or from the sun, or parallel 

 to its course, — 



As the sunflower turns on its god as he sets 

 The same look which it turn'd as he rose, 



is somewhat amplified so as to include a greater 

 variety of movements, more or less dependent on 

 light. Thus, for instance, the American Compass- 

 plant, which is affirmed to present the edges of its 

 leaves duly north and south, although not truly 

 heliotropal, could not be omitted. This plant has 

 evidently been long familiar to the hunters of the 

 prairies, on account of the direction of its leaves, 

 although it was not made known to the scientific 

 world until 1842. 



Captain Mayne Reid calls it the Polar-plant, for 

 he says of it, " We had a guide to our direction, 

 uncrrincr as the macrnetic needle. We were traversinsf 



