SUNFL 0 WER . 
(Fidelity?) 
| HE classic legend of Clytie has been attached to 
I the sunflower. That nymph had been beloved 
by Helios, but it was not long before he trans¬ 
ferred his affections to Leucothoe, daughter of King 
Orchamus. When Clytie found herself unable to regain 
her lover, she informed the Persian monarch of his 
daughter’s love affair, and he had the unfortunate girl 
entombed alive. Helios, enraged at the terrible tragedy, 
entirely forsook the nymph whose jealousy had caused it; 
and she, overwhelmed with grief, lay prone upon the earth 
for nine days and nights without any sustenance, her eyes 
continually following the course of her adored sun through 
the heavens. At last the gods, less pitiless than her 
former admirer, transformed her into a sunflower, and, a n 
Ovid says : 
“ Still the loved object the fond leaves pursue, 
Still move their root, the moving sun to view.” 
Robert Browning thus alludes to the story of Rudel, 
the ancient French poet, who adopted this splendid 
blossom as his emblem : 
“I know a mount, the gracious sun perceives 
First when he visits, last, too, when he leaves 
The world ; and, vainly favoured, it repays 
The day-long glory of his steadfast gaze 
