WILD FLOWERS YELLOW AND ORANGE 
dled about the streets of Russia, like peanuts, except 
they are eaten raw. The Sunflower also yields a by- 
product used in making soap and candles. The 
stems and heads make an excellent paper, and are used 
for fuel. The seeds are also used as food for parrots 
and for fattening poultry and swine. The foliage 
has been used for fodder, and the flowers yield honey 
and also a yellow dye. The tall, stout, rough, hairy 
stalk is leafy, and branches at the top. It grows 
annually from three to six feet high, or in cultivated 
forms, sometimes fifteen feet high. The large, alter- 
nating, long-stemmed leaves are broadly oval with a 
tapering tip; strongly three-nerved, coarsely toothed, 
and rough on both sides. The lower ones are often 
heart-shaped. The flower heads of the wild species, 
which measure from three to six inches broad, are 
composed of numerous dark purple or brown tubular 
disc florets, surrounded by a row of long, curving, 
flaring yellow rays, contained in a flat green mat 
edged with several rows of pointed green parts. They 
terminate the stalk and stout stems springing from the 
axils of the leaves. The Wild Sunflower is found 
from July to September, in rich soils, from Minne- 
sota to the Northwest Territory, Missouri, and Texas 
and California. Occasionally it is found in waste 
ground eastward, where it has escaped from gardens. 
The generic name is from helios, the sun, and 
anthos, a flower. The heads face the sun, and usually 
turn in its direction. There are about sixty species 
belonging to this group which are native to our hemis- 
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