HELIOTROPES, OR SUNFLOWERS. 171 



the region of the Polar - plant, the planes of 

 whose leaves at almost every step pointed out our 

 meridian. It grew upon our track and was crushed 

 under the hoofs of our horses as we rode onwards." 1 

 Under the same name it is referred to by Burton : 

 " Whilst in the damper ground appeared the Polar- 

 plant, — that prairie compass, the plane of whose leaf 

 ever turns towards the magnetic meridian." 3 The 

 Times correspondent with the Prince of Wales in 

 Canada alludes to it as the Compass-weed : " For- 

 tunately none go to the prairies for the first time 

 without being shown, in case of such mishaps, the 

 groups of Compass-weed which abound all over 

 the plains, and the broad flat leaves of which point 

 due north and south with an accuracy as unvarying 

 as that of the magnetic needle itself." 3 Lieut. J. W. 

 Albert says : " The prairie was yet what is called ' 

 rolling, the flat bottoms were covered with the rosin 

 weed, or Polar-plant (Silphium laciniatimi), whose 

 pinnate-parted leaves have their lobes extending 

 like fingers on each side of the midrib. It is said 

 that the planes of the leaves of this plant are coin- 

 cident with the plane of the meridian ; but those 

 I have noticed must have been influenced by some 



1 " The Scalp-Hunters " (1852), p. 206. 



2 " The City of the Saints," by R. F. Burton (1861), p. 60. 



3 1861, p. 300. 



