52 ZOOLOGY 



receptacle, on which are placed the very numerous 

 flowers or florets. The outer florets bear the large rays, 

 which give the head its conspicuous appearance. These 

 are sterile and do not produce seed, but they make the 

 sunflowers easily visible to the bees, which carry the 

 pollen and so bring about fertilization. The large 

 center or disk is composed of great numbers of small 

 florets, each giving rise to one seed. The florets do not 

 all bloom simultaneously, and a brief examination will 

 often show that a head which is apparently in full 

 flower is really mainly still in bud. 



Varieties of 3. The garden or annual sunflower, aside from varia- 

 sunffower tions in color, has several distinct forms. That with 

 the tall single stalk and the enormous head at the 

 summit is commonly known as the "Russian sunflower." 

 The disk may be a foot across. This variety forms an 

 important crop in Russia, but it did not originate there, 

 and the name is as misleading as that of the "Irish 

 potato," which also is of American origin. The first 

 description of the large-headed sunflower was published 

 in 1567, and was made from plants growing at Madrid, 

 in Spain. Its native country was supposed to be Peru, 

 but more probably it was Mexico, as no similar sun- 

 flower is known to exist in Peru. The wonderful sym- 

 metrical heads, with their bright orange rays, early 

 attracted the attention of artists. Anton Van Dyck 

 or Vandyke (1599-1641), when painting his own por- 

 trait, introduced a sunflower into the picture, a very 

 large head, with two or three rows of rays. In the 

 nineteenth century Edward Burne- Jones, the English 

 painter, wrote: "Did you ever draw a sunflower? It 

 is a whole school of drawing and an education in itself. 

 Do you know what faces they have, how they peep 

 and peer, and look arch and winning, or bold and a little 



