The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-29
THE sUNFLOwER IN COURT.

Inat bright ana gaudy representative oI
the floral world popularity known as the
sunfower and scientifically as Helianthus
annuus is the first American flower to at
tain the dignity of figuring in Supreme
Court decision. The once costly tulip and
the fashionable chrysanthemum may have
been the subject of litigation, though the
Journal does not know, but they are not
American flowers. The sunfower is dis
tinctly so, and has even received some
votes in the contest for national flower.
1t has the honor of having been selected
as State emblem. and the sobriquet Of
the Sun1ower State belongs to Kansas as
exclusively as that of the Hoosier State
does to Indiana, though it is doubtful If
there are any more sunflowers in Kansas
than there are in Indiana The stalks
make good fuel, but while Kansas has corn
to burn why raise sunfiowers? Moreover,
malaria and the seeds are fine food for
chickens. and Indiana has some malaria
and a great many chickens.
But the sunflower that has become the
subject of judicial decision was grown in
Missouri. 1t came about in this way: The
Council of st. Louis passed an anti-weed or
dinance under which a certain individual
was convicted and fined for allowing weeds
to grow on his premises. The defendant
appealed from the Police Court, when he
was first convicted, to the Criminal Court,
which affirmed the finding of the lower
A.
Court. The defendants plea in the lower
courts was that the alleged weeds on his
premises were mainly sunhowers, and that
these not being weeds they had right to
exist and he right to cultivate them. In
short, he maintained that the ordinance
was unconstitutional.
The dividing line between weed and a
flower is so narrow that the Journal would
hesitate to draw it, Some scientist has de-
fined dirt as matter out of place, and per-
haps a weed might be defined as an un-
classified plant 1t is a convenient term
for covering up botanical ignorance. some
what as doctors call every illness they are
unable to define malaria" and attribute
deaths they cannot account for otherwise
to heart failure" They cannot miss it
much in either case, for malaria-bad air
is factor in almost every disease and
there is never death without heart failure.
AS to the term weed, the Century Die
tionary defines it as ''any one of those
herbaceous plants which are useless and
without special beauty, or especially which
! are positively troublesome" This is not a
good definition. Hundreds Of plants which
are called weeds because they have no
beauty possess valuable medicinal qualities,
while others are eaten as green's by those
who know their good qualities. Some OF
| these plants, by cultivation, develop beauti-
| full flowers. Others are weeds to the ag-
riculturist or the gardener and flowers to
! the esthetic. The corn flower, the morn
| ing glory, the poppy and some other flow
ering plants regarded as noxious weeds and
great nuisances by farmers are highly
| priced and cultivated for their beauty by
| town people. Many of the most beautiful
| Towering plants in our greenhouses have
| been produced by culture and evolution
! from so-called weeds. 1t would be hard tc
| get mixed jury of farmers, gardeners and
| florists to agree on a verdict as TO what q
| weed is. The violet is one of the mos-
widely disseminated wild plants that grows
and in the spring it blooms so profusely IL
fields and forests that wagonload of then
would have no money value. In the winter
the thrifty florist gets half dollar for
button-hole bouquet. Is ii a weed or
| flower?
To return to the sunfower. The st. Loui
man appealed his case to the Suprem
Court. and the judge who rendered the de
cision of the court dropped into poetry. H
said:
The appellant with truly natural instinc
and with a commendable and lively recol
lection of his boyhood days and tastes, oh
| jects TO the sufficiency of the evidence Z
convict him of wrnng-doing. because, h
the weeds were sunfiowers-the emblemati
flower OF our sister State of Kansas tn
queen OF our mothers garden. the howe
that has been immortalized by Moore, VIII
declares:
The heart that has truly loved never for
gets.
But loves as truly on TO the close;
AS the suntiower turns to her god whe
The same look that she turned when h
rose.
was ever quoted in judicial decision. Tn
court said. however, that there was nothin