SUN-FLOWER. 415 



SUN-FLOWER. 



HELIANTHUS. 



CISTEM. SYNGENESIA POLYGAMIA FRUSTANEA. 



French, 1'helianthe ; fleur du soleil ; soleil [the sun] ; tournesol 

 [sun-turner] ; couronne du soleil [crown of the sun] : herbe du soleil 

 [sun- wort]. Italian, girasole ; fior del sol ; corona del sole ; girasole 

 Indiano [Indian sun-turner] ; girasole Peruano. 



THE Sun-flower can scarcely be introduced here with 

 propriety, being in general so large, even the annual kinds, 

 as to be ill adapted for pots. The Annual Sun-flower 

 rises to the height of twelve or fourteen feet, and the 

 flower sometimes exceeds a foot in diameter. 

 Churchill speaks of it as 



" the proud giant of the garden race, 



Who, madly rushing to the sun's embrace, 



O'ertops her fellows with aspiring aim, 



Demands his wedded love, and bears his name." 



It is not called Sun-flower, as some have supposed, from 

 turning to the sun, but from the resemblance of the full- 

 blown flower to the sun itself: Gerarde remarks, that he 

 has seen four of these flowers on the same stem, pointing to 

 the four cardinal points. This flower is a native of Mexico 

 and Peru, and looks as if it grew from their own gold. It 

 flowers from June to October. 



The Dwarf Annual kind, which grows from eighteen 

 inches to three feet in height, is a little more within compass. 



The Perennial Sun-flower is much esteemed for bou- 

 quets ; the flowers are about eight or ten inches in dia- 

 meter : there is a constant succession from July to Novem- 

 ber. It is a native of Virginia. 



The Dark-red Sun-flower, and the Narrow-leaved, are of 

 a more moderate height ; the first* two or three feet, the 

 latter, a foot and a half. Both are natives of Virginia, 

 flowering in September and October. 



