294 YELLOW TO ORANGE 



The Irish poet, Moore, referring to this flower as an 

 emblem of constancy, has sung that 



" The sunflower turns on her god when he sets 

 The same look which she turn'dwhen he rose." 



But fact, unfortunately, refuses to corroborate his romantic 

 fancy, for alas ! the Heliant/ms does not turn its big golden 

 flower-face from east to west to follow the course of the sun 

 god, but, on the contrary, remains in the same position all 

 day long. 



In olden days, in Peru and Mexico, this flower occupied 

 an important place both in the mythology and in the sculpture 

 of the country, and also was employed as a mystic and sacred 

 emblem by the inhabitants. The maidens who waited upon 

 the sun god in the temple wore on their breasts representa- 

 tions of it executed in beaten gold, and it also was extensively 

 cultivated in the gardens of the priests. 



The ancient Greeks believed that the HeliantJms was the 

 incarnation of the nymph Clytie, who by reason of her great 

 love for Apollo sat for nine days upon the ground intently 

 gazing at the orb of day, until at length she became rooted 

 to the earth and her face was transformed into the shining 

 disk of the Sunflower. 



All these legends tend, perhaps, to increase our interest in 

 this handsome plant, whose brilliant-hued blossoms burn with 

 a golden light in the mountain thickets and whose leaves 

 make a waving of slight shadows across the land. 



GREAT-FLOWERED GAILLARDIA 



Gaillardia aj'istata. Composite Family 



Stems : simple, or little branched, hirsute with jointed hairs. Leaves : 

 firm, densely pubescent, the lower and basal ones petioled, oblong, lacin- 

 iate, pinnatifid or entire ; upper leaves sessile, lanceolate, entire or den- 

 tate. Flowers : large-peduncled, heads of tubular and radiate flowers ; 

 rays cuneate, three-toothed ; bracts of the involucre hirsute. 



