COMMON SUNFLOWER 



About the flower-head are gathered a number of bracts, some- 

 times leafy, sometimes scarious; frequently several rows, sometimes 

 but one; but in any and every case they make the involucre, and 

 its leaves are termed scales. The bracts and scales, which often 

 grow on the receptacle among the flowers, are called chaff; when 

 these are wanting the receptacle is said to be naked. 



The autumn garden is full of Composites; some have been 

 cultivated for hundreds of years, others are recent arrivals. Ap- 

 parently, the number worthy of cultivation is unlimited and the 

 changes wrought by cultivation very great. The family fitly 

 holds its place as the most efficient type of flowering plants. 



COMMON SUNFLOWER. HELIANTHUS 



Helidnthus dnnuus. 

 Helianthus, Greek, flower of the sun. 



The familiar annual Sunflower of the garden, with huge heads and 

 large, roughish leaves; variable; thrives in sunny places. 



Stem. — Six to ten feet high, rough, hairy. 



Leaves. — Large, usually alternate, petioled, varying in size and 

 character. 



Flower-heads. — Huge, four to twelve inches across; involucre of 

 many leafy bracts, imbricated. 



Tubular-florets. — Fertile, crowded in concentric circles on the flat, 

 circular disk which is the receptacle; each floret embraced by a persistent 

 bract called chaff. 



Ray- florets. — Yellow, in a single row about the edge of the disk; 

 neutral, that is, without stamens or pistil. 



Calyx. — Reduced to two awns. 



Corolla. — Tubular, five-lobed. 



Stamens. — Five, the anthers making a tube. 



Style. — Two-cleft; divisions recurved. 



Akenes. — Compressed, angular, wingless, the persistent chaff remain- 

 ing with the fruit. 



The Indian Sun or the golden floure of Peru, is a plant of such stature that 

 in one Sommer, being sowne of a seede in April, it hath risen up to the height 



453 



