Heliotrope. 
TI 3 
odour proceeded, he could discover nothing but some light 
green shrubs, the tips of whose elegant sprays were decked 
with faint purple blossom. Finding on inspection that all 
these tiny florets turned towards the sun, Jussieu gave the 
plant the name of Heliotrope, and collecting some of the seeds 
forwarded them to the royal garden at Paris, where in i 74 o 
the heliotrope was first cultivated. It spread into all the coun¬ 
tries of Luiope, and from its delicious scent soon became an 
especial favourite with the ladies. 
St. Pierre, in his exquisite “ Studies of Nature,” speaking of 
this plant says: “The Chrysanthemum Peruvianum —or to 
employ a better-known term, the Turnsol—which turns con¬ 
tinually towards the sun, covers itself, like Peru, the country 
rom which it comes, with dewy clouds, which cool and refresh 
its flowers during the most violent heat of the day.” 
a ° a ie nT Canary Aelmtrope florists gave the name of “Ma- 
ame de Maintenon, in flattery, it is supposed, to Louis XIV 
as the sun to which his favourite lady always turned her eyes 
fancifully 0 says 1S ^ M °° re iS thinkin S of when Ae so 
“ She, enamoured of the sun. 
At his departure hangs her head and weeps 
And shrouds her sweetness up, and keeps 
Sad vigils like a cloister’d nun. 
Till his reviving ray appears, 
Waking her beauty as he dries her tears ”? t 
An anonymous poet has deduced from this flower a meaning 
which though given here, is quite the reverse of that assigned 
to it by florigraphists : 
“ There is a flower, whose modest eye 
Is turned with looks of light and love 
Who breathes her sweetest, softest sigh, 
Whene’er the sun is bright above. & 
Let clouds obscure, or darkness veil, 
; Her fond idolatry is fled ; 
Her sighs no more their sweets exhales 
I he loving eye is cold and dead. 
“Canst thou not trace a moral here, 
I' alse flatterer of the prosperous hour ? 
Let but an adverse cloud appear, 
And thou art faithless as the flower.” 
8 
