THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
63 
One day, the celebrated Jussieu, botanizing in the 
Cordilleras, felt himself almost intoxicated with a most 
delicious perfume : he expected to discover some bril¬ 
liant flower, but found only pretty bushes of a soft 
green, crowned with clusters of a pale, lustreless pur¬ 
ple. He approached these bushes (which were six 
feet high), and saw that the flowers with which they 
were loaded, all turned to the sun. Struck with this 
circumstance, he gave it the name of heliotrope, fiom 
the Greek words lielios, sun, and trope, turn. Elat¬ 
ed with his new conquest, he hastened to gather some 
seeds of it, and send to the Jardin du Hoi. The 
ladies of Paris received the new plant with enthu¬ 
siasm ; they placed it in the most precious vases, 
called it “ herb of love,” and received with indiffer¬ 
ence a bouquet which did not contain it. It was 
cultivated for the first time, in Europe, in 1740, and 
immediately took its place as a favorite in fashion¬ 
able society. 
SUNFLOWER (Helianthus annum ). False riches. 
“ The gaudy orient sunflower from the crowd 
Uplifts its golden circle.” 
Matunn. 
“ Sunflowers, planted for their gilded show. 
That scale the window’s lattice ere they blow; 
Then, sweet to habitants within the sheds, 
I*eep through the diamond panes their golden heads.” 
Clare. 
“ Uplift, proud sunflower, to thy favorite orb, 
That disk whereon his brightness seems to dwell; 
And as thou seem’st his radiance to absorb, 
Proclaim thyself the garden’s sentinel.” 
Barton. 
