Tellow and Orange 



the yellow daisy from too fierce sunlight, and great need of more 

 branches and leaves. (See prickly pear, p. 319.) This is a smooth, 

 much branched plant, towering sometimes twelve feet high, 

 though commonly not even half that height ; its great lower 

 leaves, on long petioles, have from three to seven divisions vari- 

 ously lobed and toothed ; while the stem leaves are irregularly three 

 to five parted or divided. The numerous showy heads, which 

 measure from two and a half to four inches across, have from six 

 to ten bright yellow rays drooping a trifle around a dull greenish- 

 yellow conical disk that gradually lengthens to twice its breadth, 

 if not more, as the seeds mature. July— September. Quebec to 

 Montana, and southward to the Gulf of Mexico. 



Tall or Giant Sunflower 



{Helianthus giganteus) Thistle family 



Flower-heads—Stv&r2L\, on long, rough-hairy peduncles; i}4to 2}( 

 in. broad; 10 to 20 pale yellow neutral rays around a yellow- 

 ish disk whose florets are perfect, fertile. Stem: 3 to 12 ft. 

 tali, bristly-hairy, usually branching above, often reddish ; 

 from a perennial, fleshy root. Leaves : Rough, firm, lance- 

 shaped, saw-toothed, sessile. 



Preferred Habitat— \jcy^ ground, wet meadows, swamps. 



Flowering Season — ^August — October. 



Distribution — Maine to Nebraska and the Northwest Territory, 

 south to the Gulf of Mexico. 



To how many sun-shaped golden disks with outflashing rays 

 might not the generic name of this clan {helios = the sun, anthos 

 = a flower) be as fittingly applied: from midsummer till frost 

 the earth seems given up to floral counterparts of his worship- 

 ful majesty. If, as we are told, one-ninth of all flowering plants 

 in the world belong to the composite order, of which over six- 

 teen hundred species are found in North America north of Mexico, 

 surely over half this number are made up after the daisy pattern 

 (p. 271), the most successful arrangement known, and the major- 

 ity of these are wholly or partly yellow. Most conspicuous 

 of the horde are the sunflowers, albeit they never reach in the 

 wild state the gigantic dimensions and weight that cultivated, dark 

 brown centred varieties produced from the common sunflower 

 ( H. annus ) have attained. For many years the origin of the 

 latter flower, which suddenly shone forth in European gardens 

 with unwonted splendor, was in doubt. Qnly lately it was 

 learned that when Champlain and Segur visited the Indians on 

 Lake Huron's eastern shores about three centuries ago, they saw 

 tiiem cultivating this plant, which must have been brought by 



356 



