the power of coagulating milk. 
—_— : 
, 
SUNDEW. 
light of this season arises from the view of the 
full development or successful progress of the 
powers and processes which in Spring began to 
operate. The plants, which had just pierced the 
earth in the commencement of that season, have 
now shot forth their stalks, and expanded their 
blades, and opened their beautiful flowers to the 
sun ; the trees rejoice in their leafy pride; the 
fields luxuriate in the abundance of their vege- 
table stores; and animated nature is instinct 
with life and enjoyment. The whole scene is 
full of delight ; but it is only when it is asso- 
ciated with religious feelings, and when it raises 
the mind to a Father Being, who called all this 
loveliness into existence, and whose unseen pre- 
sence and mysterious energies cheer and bless 
the world He has made, that it can be enjoyed 
with its highest and most appropriate relish. It 
is this pious sentiment which gives such sub- 
lime beauty to the ‘ Hymn on the Seasons ;’ and 
perhaps there is no part of that hymn which 
more successfully expresses the tenderness and 
devout admiration of a rightly constituted mind, 
in contemplating the wonders of Nature, than 
that which refers to Summer :— 
‘Then comes thy beauty in the summer months 
With light and heat refulgent. ‘Then thy sun 
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year; 
And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks; 
And oft, at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve, 
By brooks, and groves, and hollow whispering 
gales. i i vs 
Soft roll your incense, herbs, and fruits, and 
flowers, 
In mingled clouds to Him, whose sun exalts, 
Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil 
paints.’ ” 
SUMMER FALLOW. See Fatuow. 
SUNDEW,—pbotanically Drosera. A genus of 
thalamiflorous aquatic plants, constituting the 
type of the natural order Droseracee. The spe- 
cies inhabit marshes or inundated lands in all 
the temperate regions of the world ; and are re- 
markable for combined beauty and singularity 
of structure. All parts of their foliage have an 
abundance of glandular hairs; and their young 
leaves are always rolled up in the circinnate 
manner which is so generally and beautifully 
exemplified in ferns. They possess very little 
medicinal virtue, but in many instances have 
Five or six 
greenhouse species, and a dozen or upwards of 
hardy species, occur in British collections, and 
belong to five genera. 
The true sundews, or plants of the genus dro- 
sera, strongly exhibit the interesting characteris- 
tics of the order, and discharge from the ends of 
| theirred glandular hairs drops of viscid acrid juice 
_ of similar appearance to dew, and possess so curi- 
ous an irritability that their hairs when touched 
by insects contract upon them and imprison them. 
Three occur wild in Britain, six or seven have been 
introduced from North America, Southern Africa, 
and New Holland, and upwards of twenty more | 
SUNFLOWER. 380 
are known. The three indigenous ones are the 
English, the round-leaved, and the long-leaved, 
—the first occurring only in England and the 
other two both in England and in Scotland; and 
all three, as well as all the introduced kinds, 
have a height of only a few inches, and thrive 
only on boggy ground, and are propagated from 
seeds. The leaves are simple, and either undi- 
vided or lobed; and the flowers are terminal and 
racemose, rarely solitary, and have either a white 
or a purple or a white and red colour, and bloom 
for the most part in July and August. 
SUNFLOWER,—botanically Helianthus. A 
genus of ornamental, herbaceous, exotic plants, 
constituting the type of a suborder of composite. 
Its involucrum is imbricated and spreads hori- 
zontally ; its receptacle is flat and chaffy ; and its 
fruit-crown has two leaf-like appendages. The 
suborder which it represents bears the name of 
Helianthee, and is the largest of the composite, 
and comprises about ninety genera,—among the 
most conspicuous, or beautiful, or best-known of 
which are georgina, calendula, helianthus, zinnia, 
sanvitalia, coreopsis, and calliopsis. Five annual 
species of true sunflowers, and nearly thirty per- 
ennial-rooted species, all hardy, and nearly all 
yellow-flowered, have been introduced to Britain ; 
and several more are known. Most thrive in 
any common soil,—and the rest in a soil of peaty 
loam; and the annual kinds are propagated from 
seeds, and the perennial kinds, with one excep- 
tion, by radical division. A tuberous rooted spe- 
cles, constituting that exception, and extensively 
cultivated for the sake of its esculent tubers, is 
noticed in the article ArTIcHoKE (JERUSALEM). 
The name sunflower alludes either to the sun- 
like disc of the flowers, or to the popular but 
erroneous notion that they always turn toward 
the sun. 
The common annual sunflower, Helianthus 
annuus, shares with the Jerusalem artichoke the 
main interest of the genus, both popular and 
economical. It is a native of South America, 
and was introduced to Britain toward the close 
of the 16th century, and has long been generally 
known and admired as a showy and staring or- 
nament of the front of shrubberies and the back- 
row of broad flower-borders. Its stem is thick, 
strong, and branched, and usually attains a height 
of from 4 to 7 feet; its leaves are cordate, rough, 
and three-nerved; its flowers stand on strong 
foot-stalks, and have various shades of yellow 
from sulphur-colour to semi-orange, and bloom 
from June till October; and its heads are large 
and nodding, and look conspicuously both near 
and distant, and produce a comparatively vast 
quantity of seeds. Small sowings for ornamental 
purposes may be made in beds, at different pe- 
riods, so as to obtain a long succession; the 
young plants, as soon as they come fairly up, 
should be thinned to proper distances, and kept 
free from weeds; and, when they attain a height 
of about 6 inches, they should be taken up, with 
2B 
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