YELLOW 



C.falcata is a species which may be found in dry sandy soil 

 as far north as Massachusetts, with very woolly stems, crowded 

 linear leaves, and small, clustered flower-heads. 



WILD SUNFLOWER. 



Helianthus giganteus. Composite Family. 



Stem. Rough or hairy ; from three to ten feet high ; branched above. 

 Leaves. Lance-shaped; pointed; rough to the touch, set close to the stem. 

 Flower-heads. Yellow ; composed of both ray and disk-flowers. 



In late summer many of our lanes are hedged by this beauti- 

 ful plant, which, like other members of its family, lifts its yellow 

 flowers sunward in pale imitation of the great lifegiver itself. 



We have twenty-two different species of sunflower. 



H. divaricatus is of a lower growth, with opposite, widel^ 

 spreading leaves and larger flower-heads. 



H. annuus is the garden species familiar to all ; this is said 

 to be a native of Peru. Mr. Ellwanger writes regarding it : 

 " In the mythology of the ancient Peruvians it occupied an im- 

 portant place, and was employed as a mystic decoration in an- 

 cient Mexican sculpture. Like the lotus of the East, it is equally 

 a sacred and an artistic emblem, figuring in the symbolism of 

 Mexico and Peru, where the Spaniards found it rearing its aspir- 

 ing stalk in the fields, and serving in the temple as a sign and a 

 decoration, the sun-god's officiating handmaidens wearing upon 

 their breasts representations of the sacred flower in beaten gold." 



Gerarde describes it as follows: "The Indian Sun, or the 

 golden floure of Peru, is a plant of such stature and talnesse that 

 in one Sommer, being sowne of a seede in April, it hath risen 

 up to the height of fourteen foot in my garden, where one floure 

 was in weight three pound and two ounces, and crosse over- 

 thwart the floure by measure sixteen inches broad." 



The generic name is from helios the sun, and anthos a 

 flower. 



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