Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-07-06
HISTORY OF THE sUsFLowEg.

No flower for long TING has become SO
popular ard 30 personal as the sunhower.
Il has climbed into our favor, and taken
possession Of our homes, our gardens and
our dress, and is everywhere the sentinel
of art and fashion-and of right, for it is
not only decorative and useful flower, but
bears good religious character, being as a
Christian flower dedicated to st. Bartholo-
new, st. Louis King and st. Andradis,
and. as a pagan emblem, the sacred flower
of the ancient Peruvians, who were wor.
shippers of the sun.
Its resemblance to the god of day and its
supposed homage to the rising sun made it
their emblem OF faith and on this account
it was greatly used in their religious cere-
monies, and the virgins who ofhciated in
the temple of the sun were crowned with
sunflowers made of pure gold, and carried
them in their hand, and fastened their
robes with them.
In Persia and other lands of the East the
sunfiower is the emblem of constancy in
love, and there are many poetical illusions
in Eastern literature to the flower that
always turns its face towards the sun.
The first mention we have of it in Eng
land is from Gerard, in 1896, when he tells
us that in his garden he had one that has
grown to the hight of fourteen feet, which
produces flowers measuring sixteen inches
over. In Spain and Mexico they grow to
the hight Of twenty feet, some of the flow
ers measuring four feet in diameter, and a
single flower producing 1852 seeds.
Alma Tadema has illustrated this fact in
his beautiful picture of Sunfowers," in
IA ".n,ch maiden is reaching up to the flow
ers, which are still far above her. The
whole purpose Of the picture is evidently
intended to make the spectator feel the
great hight of the plant. Browning calls
the flower "foolish mimic sum-" Darwin
gives it a better character, for he says it
"climbs the upland lawn,
And bows in homage to the rising dawn"
Moore uses it as a comparison of con-
stancy, for he says:
Gas the suniower turns on her god, when he sits,
The same look which she turned when he rose
But Blake gave it sad; longing charac-
ter. and in two short, exquisite verses
make you feel quite differently to the great
yellow flower
All Sunfower, weary OF time,
Who countest the steps of the sun,
Seeking after the sweet golden prime
Where the travellers journey Is uOne
Where the youth pinned away with desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves and aspire
Where my Sunfower wishes to go.
Botanical authorities say that there are
nearly fifty species. Among those which
are best known are the tall suntlower of
Peru and Mexico, the perennial, a ma
tive of Virginia, and the dwarf suntiower,
brought as late as 1878 from Egypt. The
seeds, when peeled, taste like sweet al
mond. They make an excellent bread Of
them in Portugal, and during the late war,
in the Southern States, they were substi-
tuted for coffee in many frontier cabin.
They are good food for poultry, and the oil
pressed from them is frequently used in
place of olive oil for salads; it can also be
burned in the lamp, and is splendid for
soap making.
The stems and flowers when burned pro.
duce good potash, and many housewife
in Texas has superintendent the burning of
sunf1owers to obtain the potash for her
weeks baking with as much care as she
did the baking itself.
In Texas the sunhower pulled at sum
down with a wish is sure to bring the wish
true before the next sunset $50 the Indians
sayl, and no true Texan will have garden
without at least one of these mimic suns"
in it. To dream of them signifies that you
will have your pride wounded; and
negro, if he has this dream, will never rest
until he has pulled sunfiower to counter
act the omen. And in some parts of the
South negro will not let you bring into
the house a sunfower that has been pulled
before it is perfect, or one that is in any
way broken.-[ Harpers Weekly.