BOTANY OF THE SUNFLOWEK. 1 

 ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY. 



The wild sunflower, Helianthus annuus, from which the cultivated 

 variety has been developed, is native in the Great Plains region from 

 Nebraska to northern Mexico. It was first cultivated in Europe in 

 the gardens at Madrid, about the middle of the sixteenth century. 

 This was soon after the Spanish expeditions to Peru and to Santa Fe, 

 N. Mex. All of the earlier botanists and many writers of the present 

 day credit its origin to Peru, but this is probably an error, as there is 

 no evidence that the sunflower was cultivated by the natives in Peru, 

 and it is not recorded as indigenous anywhere south of the northern 

 part of Mexico. 



One of the earliest records of the plant is that of De Lobel, 2 a Flem- 

 ish botanist, who gives a good illustration and description of a sunflower 

 with stout, erect stem, big leaves, and large, nodding head, like our 

 present garden variety, and calls it " Solis flos Peruvianus" (Peruvian 

 sunflower). 



The works of several European botanists printed during the last 

 quarter of the sixteenth century contain illustrations and descriptions 

 of the sunflower. Most of them follow Dodoens in calling it Chrysan- 

 theinum peruvianum, and some of them refer especially to plants grow- 

 ing in the royal gardens at Madrid. 



Descriptions and illustrations of four varieties given by Gerarde in 

 1597 indicate that the sunflower was well developed in Europe at 

 that time. The following statement which he makes in regard to its 

 origin and growth agrees well with the records of other writers of that 

 time: 



These plants do growe of themselves without setting or sowing in Peru, and in 

 divers other provinces in America. There hath beene seene in Spain and other hot 

 regions a plant sown and nourished up from the seede to attain to the height of 24 

 foote in one yeere. 3 



A case is cited by Caspar Bauhin* in 1671 in which 2,362 seeds from 

 one head were counted. 



The sunflower introduced into Europe was undoubtedly derived from 

 plants cultivated and developed by the American Indians. When 

 Champlain explored the region in the vicinity of Georgean Bay in 

 1615 he found the Indians there cultivating a "herbe des soleil" from 

 the seeds of which they obtained oil used on their hair. Sunflower 

 seeds were also used for food by the Indians in early times, as they are 



1 The Division of Chemistry is indebted to Mr. L. H. Dewey of the Division of 

 Botany for the botanical description which is made a part of this bulletin. 



2 Matthiae de Lobel. Stirp. Hist., 322 (1576) . 

 8 Gerarde, Herbal, 612-614 (1597). 



4 Caspar Bauhin, Theatri Botanici, Ed. II, 277 (1671). 



