480 A POPULAR FALLACY RESPECTING THE SUNFLOWER. 
47. Half-double Quilled Orange , Semi-double Quilled Orange, 
Hort. Trans, vol. v. p. 412 and 422, and vol. v. tab. 17** (left-hand 
figure), and vol. vi. p. 352. A tallish plant, with but few large and 
almost single, and also some nearly half-double flowers, of good size, 
but making a poor show. 
48. Half-double Pale Quilled Orange, Semi-double Quilled Pale 
Orange, Hort. Trans, vol. vi. p. 337. Also called Semi-double 
Deep Yellow. Of the middle stature, with few and late flowers, of 
good size, but comparatively poor appearance, on loosely drooping 
footstalks. 
Obs. The author has rejected the hybrid word semi-double 
throughout the paper. 
ARTICLE VII. 
A POPULAR FALLACY RESPECTING THE SUNFLOWER. 
BY VIOLA. ) 
Who has not heard that the sunflower keeps her face turned invaria¬ 
bly towards the sun ? From the peer to the peasant it is believed— 
science has vouched the fact—ignorance implicitly credits the asser¬ 
tion—poets gladly seize, and dilate upon so eloquent a theme; and 
we dote upon such elegant lines as the following :— 
N “ The heart that has fondly lov’d never forgets, 
But truly loves on to the close; 
As the sunflower turns to her god when he sets, 
The same look which she turn’d when he rose.”—T. Moore. 
Thus are our senses taken captive, and we are led willing dupes in 
the track of those who chance to take the lead. 
That able botanist, and amiable man, the late Sir James Edward 
Smith, has unaccountably fallen into the popular error of believing 
in the above-mentioned truly feminine and graceful quality of con¬ 
stancy, attributed to the sunflower. In his “ Introduction to Botany,” 
2nd edition, p. 209, he says, 
“ Nor is this effect of light peculiar to leaves alone. Many flowers 
are equally sensible to it, especially the compound-radiated ones, as 
the daisy, sunflower, marigold, &c. In their forms, nature seems to 
have delighted to imitate the radiant luminary, to which they are 
apparently dedicated : and in the absence of whose beams, many of 
them do not expand their blossoms at all. The stately annual sun¬ 
flower, helianthus annuus , displays this phenomenon more conspi¬ 
cuously, on account of its size, but many of the tribe have greater sen- 
