v.), the most successful arrangement known, and the majority
of these are wholly or partly yellow. Most conspicuous of the
horde are the sunflowers, albeit they never reach in the wild
state the gigantic dimensions and weight that cultivated, dark
brown centered varieties produced from the COMMON SUNFLOWER (H.
annus) have attained. For many years the origin of the latter
flower, which suddenly shone forth in European gardens with
unwonted splendor, was in doubt. Only lately. it was learned that
when Champlain and Segur visited the Indians on Lake Huron's
eastern shores about three centuries ago, they saw them
cultivating this plant, which must have been brought by them from
its native prairies beyond the Mississippi - a plant whose stalks
furnished them with a textile fiber, its leaves fodder, its
flowers a yellow dye, and its seeds, most valuable of all, food
and hair oil. Early settlers in Canada were not slow in sending
home to Europe so decorative and useful an acquisition. Swine,
poultry, and parrots were fed on its rich seeds.
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