SUN-FLOWER. 417 



fc Where rustic taste at leisure trimly weaves 

 The rose and straggling woodbine to the eaves., 

 And on the crowded spot that pales enclose 

 The white and scarlet daisy rears in rows, 

 Training the trailing peas in bunches neat, 

 Perfuming evening with a luscious sweet, 

 And sun-flowers planting for their gilded show, 

 That scale the window's lattice ere they blow, 

 Then, sweet to habitants within the sheds, 

 Peep through the diamond panes their golden heads." 



VILLAGE MINSTREL, c. vol. ii. page 80. 



The size and splendour of this flower make it very con- 

 spicuous, and some have accused it of being gaudy, al- 

 though constant in the one golden colour of its attire: 

 gaudiness, however, is a quality which may be pardoned 

 in a flower, 



" Where tulip, lily, or the purple bell 

 Of Persian wind-flower ; or farther seen 

 The gaudy orient sun-flower from the crowd 

 Uplifts its golden circle." 



MATURIN'S UNIVERSE, page 55. 



The Sun-flower was formerly called Marygold also, as 

 the Marygold was termed Sun-flower. Gerarde styles it 

 the Sun-marygold. 



There is another genus producing the same kind of 

 flowers, only smaller, usually called the Willow-leaved Sun- 

 flower. Their botanical name is Helenium, supposing 

 them to have sprung from the tears of Helen, the wife of 

 Menelaus : it has not been clearly ascertained upon what 

 occasion. Drummond speaks of this flower in his lines on 

 the death of Prince Henry : 



" Queen of the fields, whose blush makes blush the morn, 

 Sweet rose, a prince's death in purple mourn ; 

 O hyacinth, for ay your Ai keep still, 

 Nay with more marks of woe your leaves now fill : 

 And you, O flower ! of Helen's tears that's born, 

 Into those liquid pearls again now turn." 



K K 



