H E I, 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



H E L 



671 



seeds are procured from abroad, they should be sown in the 

 beginning of March on a border of light earth : and it" the 

 seeds should not come up the first year, the ground should 

 not be disturbed, because they often remain a whole year in 

 the ground before the plants come up ; in which case there 

 is nothing more to be done, but to keep the ground clear 

 from weeds, and wait until the plants rise. When they 

 appear, if the season proves dry, they must be often watered, 

 which will greatly forward their growth ; and where the 

 plants come up too close to each other, they should be 

 thinned, and transplanted out into beds a foot asunder every 

 way. being careful to shade them until they have taken root, 

 ;\s also to water them in dry weather. In autumn they may 

 be transplanted where they are to remain, and the following 

 summer they will produce their flowers, which will continue 

 till the frost prevents them; and their roots will abide many 

 years, and afford many offsets, by which they may be in- 

 creased. The best season to transplant the old roots, and 

 to part them for increase, is in the end of October, when 

 their flowers are past, or the beginning of March, just before 

 they begin to shoot; but if the spring should prove dry, they 

 must he duly watered, otherwise they will not produce so 

 many flowers the same year : these plants should not be re- 

 moved oftener than every other year, if they be expected to 

 flower strong. 



2. Helenium Pubescens ; Downy Helenium. Leaves pu- 

 bescent. This has the appearance of the preceding species, 

 but the leaves are not three inches long, and are more than 

 an inch broad in the middle, ending in acute points, and are 

 sharply serrate on their edges. The flowers stand upon 

 shorter peduncles, growing closer together. They both 

 flower at the same season. Native of North America. 



,T. Helenium I.ongifoliiim. Leaves linear-lanceolate, entire, 

 very smooth ; flower-stalks greatly elongated, naked. A more 

 lender plant than the first species, with leaves twice or thrice 

 as long, and much narrower. Native of North America. 



4. Helenium Quadridentatum. Upper leaves entire, smooth, 

 broad at the base ; florets of the disk four-cleft ; root annual ; 

 stem two feet high, much branched ; flowers much smaller 

 than the other species, orange-coloured ; flower-stalks long, 

 tlender, simple, naked, terminal, and solitary. Native of 

 Carolina and Louisiana. 



Helianthus; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Poly- 

 gamia Frustranea. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : com- 

 mon imbricate, somewhat squarrose, expanded ; scales oblong, 

 broadish at the base, gaping every where at the tips. Corolla : 

 compound radiate ; corollets hermaphrodite, very numerous, 

 in the disk; females fewer, much longer in the ray. Proper 

 of the hermaphrodites, cylindric, shorter than the common 

 calix, bellying at the base, orbiculate, depressed ; border 

 five-toothed, sharp, spreading: of the females, ligular, lance- 

 olate, quite entire, very long. Stamina : in the hermaphro- 

 dites, filamenta five, curved, inserted below the belly of the 

 corollet, the length of the tube; antherse cylindric, tubular. 

 Pistil: in the hermaphrodites, germen oblong; style fili- 

 form, length of the corollet; stigma two-parted, reflex: in 

 the females, germen very small ; style and stigma none. 

 Pericarp: none ; calix unchanged. Seeds: in the hermaph- 

 rodites, solitary, oblong, blunt, four-cornered, compressed 

 at the opposite angles; the inner ones narrower, crowned 

 with two lanceolate, acute, deciduous chaffs : in the females 

 none. Receptacle : chaffy, large, flat ; chaffs lanceolate, 

 acute, two separating each seed, deciduous. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Calix: imbricate, somewhat squarrose. 

 Down: two-leaved. Receptacle: chaffy, flat. The spe- 

 cies are, 



1. Helianthus Annuus ; Annual Sun-fiov:er. All the leaves 

 cordate, three-nerved ; peduncles thickening; flowers droop- 

 ing; root annual. Stem single or branched, from five or 

 six, to ten or fourteen feet in height, and in hot climates 

 twenty or more ; when vigorous, the size of a man's arm ; 

 leaves alternate, a span or a span and a half in length, and 

 almost as much in breadth, rough, serrate, acuminate, hang- 

 ing down at the end, on oblong petioles ; flower single, 

 nodding, a foot or more in diameter. The semiflorets, 

 or ligulate fiosoulcs in the ray, are usually of a fine golden 

 colour, and nearly an inch in breadth, ending in a point 

 which is commonly bent back. The seeds are numerous, 

 black, variegated, or white; and when these have quitted 

 their cells, the receptacle looks like a honeycomb. The 

 great si/e of the whole compound flower recommends it to 

 the student for the examination of the flosculee, which, in the 

 class Syngenesia, are usually very small. The whole plant, 

 and particularly the flower, exudes a thin, pellucid, odorous 

 resin, resembling Venice turpentine. The seeds are excel- 

 lent food for domestic poultry. The varieties are those with 

 double flowers, and deep yellow, and sulphur-coloured. 

 This flower becomes double by the change of tubular into 

 ligular florets, like those in the ray, only smaller. Gerarde 

 observes, that it was called Indian Sun-flower, or flower of 

 the Sun, Corona Solis, and Sol Indianus, because it resembles 

 the radiant beams of the sun. The report of its turning with 

 the sun is a vulgar error. Gerarde says he could never 

 observe it ; and we have seen four flowers on the same stem 

 pointing to the four cardinal points. It flowers from June to 

 October. Native of Mexico and Peru. This and the second 

 species are easily propagated by seeds sown in March upon a 

 bed of common earth ; and when the plants come up, thin them 

 where they are too close, and keep them clean from weeds : 

 when the plants are grown six inches high, they may be 

 taken up with balls of earth to their roots, atvd planted into 

 the large borders of the pleasure-garden, observing to water 

 them till they have taken new root; after which they will 

 require no other care but to keep them clear from weeds. 

 In July the great flowers upon the tops of the stems will 

 appear, amongst which the best and most double flowers of 

 each kind should be preserved for seeds; for those which 

 flower later upon the side-branches are neither so fair, nor 

 do they perfect their seeds so well, as those which are first 

 in flower : when the flowers are quite faded, and the seeds 

 are formed, the heads should be carefully guarded from the 

 sparrows, which will otherwise devour most of the good 

 seeds; and aboul the beginning of October, when the seeds 

 are ripe, the lieads, with a small part of the stem, should be 

 cut off, and hung up for a month in a dry airy place until the 

 seeds are perfectly dry and hard, wlren they may be easily 

 rubbed out, and put into bags or papers, preserving them 

 from vermin until the season tor sowing them. The peren- 

 nial sorts rarely produce seeds in England, but most of them 

 increase very fast at their roots, especially the creeping- 

 rooted kinds, which spread too far for small gardens. They 

 are all very hardy, and will grow in almost any soil or situa- 

 tion ; they are propagated by parting their roots into small 

 heads, which in one year's time will increase greatly. The 

 best season for this work is in the middle of October, soon 

 after the flowers are past, or very early in the spring, that 

 they may be well rooted before the droughts come on ; other- 

 wise their flowers will be few in number, and not near so fair, 

 and by this means their roots will be weak ; but if they be 

 planted in October, it will supersede the trouble of watering 

 them, as they will be securely rooted before the dry weather 

 arrives, and will then only require to be carefully weeded. 



