SUNFLOWERS 277 
American, for the most part confined to the north of the Continent, but 
a few are found in Chili and Peru. 
Helianthus annuus, the Common Sunflower, is as 
frequent in our gardens, perhaps, as any exotic grown here. 
During the three centuries of its sojourn in Europe it has contrived to 
find its way into most cottage-gardens, whilst retaining favour in more 
ambitious enclosures. This wide distribution is explained by its liberal 
fruiting, which enables the grower of a single plant to spare his neighbour 
a handful of the large oily seeds. In many places, indeed, one may see 
Sunflowers grown in fields for the sake of these seeds, which make an 
admirable poultry food, especially esteemed, we believe, by turkeys. 
Another species, H. tuberosus, more familiarly known as the Jerusalem 
Artichoke (though not an Artichoke and having not the remotest connec- 
tion with Palestine), is grown for human food, the creeping roots producing 
in autumn a number of irregular tubers, something like potatoes with 
the flavour of artichokes. This plant was introduced in the year 1617, 
and was distributed from the Farnese Gardens at Rome under the name 
of Girasole Articocco (Turn-sun or Sunflower-Artichoke). Our ancestors, 
with the native genius for explaining the unknown by the known, soon 
converted the first word into Jerusalem, and so it has remained ever 
since. H. multiflorus dates from 1597, and is by some thought to be a 
garden variety of H. decapetalus, because it is known only as a cultivated 
plant. It is still widely believed that the flowers of Helianthus all turn 
to the east in the morning, and so far keep pace with the great luminary 
that at sunset they all turn westward. A little careful observation would 
suffice to dissipate this notion; but poetry is stronger than fact, and Tom 
Moore having declared in one of his well-known melodies that “The sun- 
flower turns on her god, when he sets, the same look which she turned 
when he rose,” people accept that as truth without troubling to test it. 
HELIANTHUS ANNUUS (annual). Common Sunflower. 
Stem stout, ridged and rough, 6 to 10 feet high. Leaves 
large, oval, rough. Flower-heads larger than those of any other member 
of the genus; summer and autumn. There are several well-marked 
varieties in cultivation. Of these globosus fistulosus is perhaps the best 
and largest; its disk-florets having become mostly strap-shaped, it has 
a very rotund, bright appearance. 
H. ARGOPHYLLUs (silver-leaved). Silver-leaved Sunflower. Very 
similar to the last, but the downy stem less robust, not more than about 
6 feet high; the leaves covered with a dense white silvery down. The 
flower-heads are smaller, but more numerous than in H. annuus; August 
and September. Annual. Native of Texas. 
11.—29 
Principal Species. 
