SUN-FLOWER, &c. 
147 
Oft has His arm, all strong to save, 
Protected my defenceless head 
From ills I never could perceive, 
Nor could my feeble hand have stay’d. 
Then shall I still pursue my way 
O’er the wild desert’s sun-burnt soil, 
To where the ocean’s swelling spray 
Washes my long’d-for native isle. 
SUN-FLOWER, MARIGOLD, AND HELIOTROPE. 
The Sun-flower does not derive its name, as some have 
supposed, from turning to the sun, but from the resem¬ 
blance of the full-blown flower to the sun itself: Gerard 
remarks, that he has seen four of these flowers on the 
same stem, pointing to the four cardinal points. This 
flower is a native of Mexico and Peru, and looks as if 
it grew from their own gold. It flowers from June to 
October. 
The principal species of Sun-flower are — the Dwarf 
Annual, the Perennial, the Dark Red, and the narrow¬ 
leaved. 
Several of the Sun-flowers are natives of Canada, where 
they are much admired and cultivated by the inhabitants, 
in gardens, for their beauty; in the United States we 
sow whole acres of land with them, for the purpose of 
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