126 



THE DICTIONARY OF GARDENING, 



Heliaiitluis continued. 



FIG. 197. HELIANTHUS ANNUUS CALIFORNICUS PLENISSIMUS, 

 showing Habit and detached Single Flower-head. 



Composites. A genus containing about fifty species of 

 tall, hardy, annual or perennial herbs, natives, for the 

 most part, of North America ; a few, however, are found 

 in Peru and Chili. Flower-heads very large j ray-florets 



A A 



FIG. 198. FLOWERING BRANCH OF HELIANTHUS ARGOPHYLLUS. 



Kelianthus continued. 



yellow; disk-florets purple or violet. Leaves large, 

 simple, scabrid. All the species are of easy culture in 

 almost any moderately good garden soil. The taller- 

 growing ones are best adapted for growing in a shrub- 

 bery, or in the back rows of herbaceous borders, where 

 they will require plenty of space to fully develop. Propa- 

 gated by divisions ; or by seeds, sown either in pots, and 

 the seedlings afterwards transplanted, or in the open 

 ground, about March. 



H. angustifolius (narrow-leaved), fl.-heads about liin. across, 

 numerously disposed in a long, leafy raceme. September and 

 October. I. dark green, narrow, tufted, glossy. Stems slender. 

 h. 2^ft. Perennial. 



H. annuus (annual).* Common Sunflower, fl.-heads very large, 

 varying in size and colour. Summer, h. 6ft. Western United 

 States, 1596. (B. M. 2051.) Of the many varieties of this annual 

 species, the finest is globosus fistulosus (see Fig. 196), the flowers 

 of which are very large, and of a splendid, extremely double, 

 globular form, when fully developed. It is best grown in a 

 rich, deep soil. Other forms are : cali/ornicus plenissimus (see 

 Fig. 197), cucumerifolius, giyanteus, and grandiflorus. 

 H. a. macrocarpus (large-fruited). A cultivated race, with 

 larger and lighter-coloured ach 

 &c., for food and oil. 

 H. argophyllus (silver-leaved), fl.-heads yellow. Autumn. I. 

 clothed with a soft, silky, silvery down. h. 6ft. Texas. This 

 species is closely allied to H. annuus, into which it appears to 

 degenerate under cultivation. Annual. See Fig. 198. 

 H. atrorubens (dark -red), fl.-heads scattered; disk dark red or 

 purple; rays yellow, acuminated, entire. L, radical ones flat, 

 hairy ; upper ones twisted and waved, hairy, tuberculated. Stems 

 purple, rough, with whitish hairs, h. 2ft. to 3ft. United States, 

 1732. Perennial. 



H. decapetalus (ten-petaled). fl.-heads about 2in. across, ter- 

 mmal, solitary, on slender, twiggy branchlets. Autumn. L, 

 lower ones soniewhat ovate-acuminate, hardly 6in. long ; upper 

 ones 2in. to Sin. long ; all somewhat obscurely serrate. A. 5ft. 



-rue. cuvae race, w 

 chenes, long cultivated in Russia, 



FIG. 199. FLOWERING BRANCH OF HELIANTHUS DECAPETALUS 

 MULTIFLORUS. 



L. d. multiflorus (many-flowered).* This is a very old garden 

 plant, only known in cultivation. It has tinner leaves, larger 

 heads, and more numerous bracts than decapetalus. See Fig. 199. 



