Morning journal and courier., 1882-06-22
History and Literature Of the suBho v CT.
 From HzrperG weekly1

History and Literature of the sun1Io v From HzrperB weekly.I No flower for @ long time has become so popular and so personal as the sunhower. It has climbed into our favor and taken posses sion of our homes, our gardens and our dress, and is everywhere the sentinel of art and fashion-snd of right. for it is not only decorative and useful flower. but bears good religious character, being as Christian flower dedicated to St. Bartholomew, St. Louis (king) and St. Antradis, and, as pa gan emblem, the sacred flower of the ancient Peruvians, who were worshippers of the snn- Its resemblance to the god of day and its supposed homage to the rising sun made 1t thelr emblem of faith, and on this account it was greatly used in their religious ceremo- nies, and the virgins who oficiss ed in the temple of the sun were crowned with sun- flowers 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 sunhower is the emblem of constancy in love, and there are many poeticsl allusions in east ern literature o the sunfoEer that always turns its face towards the sun
 The first mention we have of it in England is from Gerard, in 1896, when he tells us that in his garden he had one that has grown to the height of fourteen feet, which produces flowers measuring sixteen inches over. In Spain and Mexico they grow to the height of twenty feet, some of the flowers measuring four feet in diameter, and single flower pro ducing 2, ,362 seeds.
 Alma Tsdema has illustrated this fact in his beautiful picture of ''Sunhovers," !" in winch a maiden is reaching up to the flowers which are still far above her. The whole purpose of the picture is evidently intended to make the spectator feel the great height of the plant Browning calls the flower "a foolish mimic sun" Darwin gives it b=tter char scter, for he says it
 sselimbs the upland lawn,
 And bows in homage to the rising dawn
 Moore uses it as a comparison of constan- cy. for he says
 ''As the sunhows< turns on her god when he sits
 The same look which she turned when hs rosa
 But Blake gave it sad, longing character, and in two short, exquisite verses makes you feel quite differently to the great yellow flower
 An sunaower, ~sAry.E ttn.s,
 Who cJuutest the EielH Of the sun,
 Seeking after the swsst golden prime
 Where the travellers journey is done
 Where the youth pinsd away with desire,
 And the pale virgin Ehrouded iu snow,
 Arise from their graves and 1spIre
 Where my SunHoEer wishes to go"
 Botanical authorities say that there are nearly fifty species. Among those which are best known are the tall sunhower of Peru and Mexico the perennial, a native of Yir- ginia, and the dwarf sunhower, brought as late ss 1878 from Egypt.
 The seeds, when peeled, taste like sweet almond. They make an excellent bread of them in Portugal. and during the late war in the southern States they were substituted for coffee in many a 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 a houseSife in Texas has superintended the burning of sun- flowers to obtain the potash for her weeks baking with as much care as she did the baking itself.
 In Texas the suuhower pulled at sundown with wish is sure to bring the wish true be- fore the next sunset (so 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 a sunhower to counteract the omen And in some parts of the South negro will not let you bring into the house a sunhower that has been pulled before it is perfect or one that is in any way broken.