Cultivated-Plant Study 635 



7. Make notes on a sunflower that has just opened, describing the 

 stages of the florets that are in blossom; continue these notes every day 

 for a week, describing, each day, what has happened. If the sunflower 

 you are observing is in garden or field, note how many days elapse between 

 the opening of the outer row of flowers and the opening of the central 

 buds. 



8. Look below or behind the sunflower, and note the way it is at- 

 tached to the stem. What covers the disk? These green, overlapping, 

 leaflike structures are called bracts. What is the shape of one of these 

 bracts? What is its texture, outside and inside? Look at it, with a lens, 

 along the edges, and note what you see. How are the bracts arranged? 

 Do they not "shingle" the house in which the sunflower-family lives? 

 This covering of the disk, or the house where the sunflower-family lives, is 

 called the involucre. 



9. Does the stem of the sunflower hold it upright? vSome people 

 declare that it twists its stem so as to face the sun all day. Do you think 

 this is true? 



10. Study a sunflower-head after the seeds are ripe. Do the little 

 ears which you saw at the top of the seeds still remain? How does the 

 sunflower scatter the seeds? Note how the disk looks after the seeds are 

 all gone. What birds are especially fond of sunflower seeds? Of what 

 use are the seeds commercially? 



"Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some 

 seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others 

 again are plain, honest, and upright, like the broad-faced Sunflower , and the hollyhock." 



— Henry Ward Beecher. 



"Eagle of flowers! I see thee stand. 



And on the sun's noon-glory gaze; 

 With eye like his thy lids expand 



And fringe their disk with golden rays; 

 Though fixed on earth, in darkness rooted there, 

 Light is thy element, thy dwelling air. 

 Thy prospect heaven." 



— "The Sunflower", Montgomery. 



