GARDEN SPECIALTIES 223 



grow to a height of ten to fifteen feet. They 

 have very large, broad, heavy leaves, and some 

 of them produce sunflowerlike blossoms of enor- 

 mous size. 



Others have small, delicate, slender foliage, and 

 produce small flowers. 



The flowers are yellow, the tubers are usually 

 pink, but white and red varieties have been pro- 

 duced in the past decade. 



Some members of the Helianthus tribe are 

 perennials, but for the most part they are annuals. 

 They are all easily grown on almost any soil, 

 requiring little or no attention. The member of 

 the tribe known as the Jerusalem artichoke is a 

 somewhat variable plant, the tubers of which are 

 chiefly used as food for stock, although sometimes 

 used as a salad. 



My own work with the tribe has been for the 

 improvement of both the flowers and the tubers. 

 There is one of the annual sunflowers that has a 

 flower quite often sixteen to twenty-four inches 

 in circumference that, if well selected, comes per- 

 fectly double, as double as the finest dahlia, pro- 

 ducing a most brilliant yellow bloom abundantly. 

 This I have worked on several years to make its 

 flower uniformly double. Also I have worked 

 with a large number of species of the tribe and 

 have cultivated many field varieties collected in 



8 Vol. 5 Bur. 



