SUNFISH 



5629 



SUNFLOWER 



The probable date of the sundial above re- 

 ferred to is about 700 B.C. The earliest sun- 

 dial of whose construction there is certain 

 knowledge is the dial of Berossus, a Chaldean 

 astronomer who lived about 300 B. c. This dial 

 was a hollow hemisphere, set with its rim hori- 

 zontal and with a small bead fixed at the cen- 

 ter. The shadow of the bead, during the sun's 

 progress from east to west, described a circular 

 arc. This arc was divided into twelve equal 

 parts. The dial, as a consequence, divided the 

 day, from sunrise to sunset, into twelve equal 

 parts, which were called temporary hours. The 

 length of these hours necessarily varied with 

 the seasons. 



For sixteen hundred years sundials, though 

 built in various ways, were all based on the 

 principle of temporary hours. About the year 

 1400 the introduction of clocks and other me- 

 chanical devices for measuring time made 

 necessary the determination of equal hours. 

 Just when the transition took place is uncer- 

 tain, but by the end of the sixteenth century 

 the temporary hours seem to have gone out 

 of use. By the end of the eighteenth century 

 the use of sundials was practically discontin- 

 ued, except where they served as ornaments 

 or were preserved as relics. 



A dial is composed of two parts, the dial 

 face, or plane, and the stile or gnomon. The 

 dial face is divided into quarters, and the dial 

 must be set so that the dividing lines run to- 

 ward the four points of the compass. The dial 

 is further marked into hour spaces, with divi- 

 sions of halves .and quarters. The gnomon is 

 a flat piece of metal, set in the center of the 

 dial and pointing toward the North Pole. On 

 sundials used in the southern hemisphere the 

 gnomon must point to the South Pole. Sun- 

 dials are known as horizontal, vertical or equi- 

 noctial, according as their planes are respec- 

 tively in the same plane as the horizon, in a 

 line perpendicular to that plane, or parallel to 

 the equator. W.F.Z. 



SUN 'FISH. There are several kinds of fish 

 to which this name is applied. In North 

 America the sunfish are a group of small, 

 bright-colored food fish, rarely over ten inches 

 long. An interesting fact in regard to their col- 

 oration is that it changes according to condi- 

 tions of health, food and temperature. The 

 common sunfish, or sunny, is found abundantly 

 in brooks and ponds from Maine to Florida and 

 in the northern part of the Mississippi Valley. 

 It has a roundish body and there is consider- 

 able orange in its coloration, so that the name 



given it by young anglers "pumpkin seed" 

 is very appropriate. This fish is about eight 

 inches long and weighs from six to eight ounces. 

 Boys enjoy angling for it because it bites with 

 so much vim. Other well-known sunfish are 



THE SUNFISH 

 The male is guarding the typical circular nest. 



the blue spotted, the mud, the long-eared and 

 the copper-nosed. 



The name sunfish is also given to a group of 

 grotesque-appearing ocean fish which have the 

 habit of resting on the surface in sunny weather 

 with one fin above the water. The body is 

 scaleless, dull colored and clumsy, that of one 

 species seeming to consist of one great head 

 with small fins. 

 The young, how- 

 ever, look more 

 like typical fish. 

 Ocean sunfish are 

 never used as 

 food. 



SUNFLOWER, 

 sun' flou er, a 

 flowering plant 

 of the Composite 

 family, so named 

 because of the 

 great flower head 

 with its encircling 

 rays of gorgeous, 



yellow petals *** the sunflower turns on 



_1 her god, when he sets, 



James Montgom- The same look which she 



turned when he roi . 

 MOORE: Believe Me, If All 

 Those Endearing Young 

 Charms. 



ery's poem to the 

 . 



flower contains 

 these lines: 



Eagle of flowef s ! I see thee stand, 

 And on the sun's noon-glory gaze ; 

 With eye like his, thy lids expand, 

 And fringe their disk with golden rays. 



One of the best known of several species is 

 the annual garden sunflower, which under cul- 



