ii6 NOTES. 



I then fell back upon the classical authors themselves. 

 I got nothing very distinct from Theophrastus, and more* 

 over it is Ovid, to whom we chiefly owe our knowledge of 

 the story. He tells us that when her lover Phoebus left 

 her, poor Clytie " still gazed on the face of the departing 

 god, and bent her looks on him. It is said that she 

 remained rooted to the ground ; of her fresh bloom 

 ('color'), part is turned by livid pallor into bloodless 

 leaves, on part a blush remains, and a flower most like a 

 Violet has covered all her face. Held firmly by the root, 

 she still turns to the Sun she loves, and, changed 

 herself, she keeps her love unchanged. " 



Pliny says the Heliotropium " turns with the Sun, in 

 cloudy weather even, so great is its sympathy with that 

 luminary. At night, as though in regret, it closes its blue 

 flowers." 



What then can this flower be, a blue flower, which 

 turns towards the Sun ? 



I next examined the magnificent volumes of Sibthorp's 

 Flora Graca. There is there indeed a European 

 "Heliotropium," "Heliotropium supinum," but this surely 

 cannot be the flower of Clytie ; the blossom is quite 

 insignificant ("flore minimo") and white. Then there 

 are two Crotons (Tinctorium and Villosum) which are 

 also locally called Heliotropium, and which grow in Crete 

 and Lemnos (" ex qua paratur Tournesol "), but their 

 flowers again are hardly more noticeable and are yellow. 



Foiled at every point, I thought I would at least see 

 what in England was the traditionary Sunflower, but I am 

 hardly any wiser. 



Gerarde says that Valerius Cordius calls the dwarf 

 Cistus Helianthemum, and Solis flos or Sunne-flower. 



