SUNFLOWER. The common sunflower, known botanically as Helianthus annum, a member of the family Compositae, is a native of the Great Plains region of the United States. It is an annual herb with a rough hairy stem 3 to 15 ft. high, broad coarsely toothed rough leaves 3 to 12 in. long, and heads of flowers 3 to 6 in. wide in wild specimens and often 1 ft. or more in cultivated. Double forms are in cultivation, one (globosus fistulosus) having very large globular heads. The plant is valuable from an economic as well as from an ornamental point of view. The leaves are used as fodder, the flowers yield a yellow dye and the seeds contain oil and are used for food. It is cultivated in Russia, England and other parts of Europe, in Egypt and in India for the seeds, the yellow sweet oil obtained by compression from which is considered equal to olive or almond oil for table use. Sunflower oilcake is used for stock and poultry feeding, and is exported by Russia to Denmark, Sweden and elsewhere. The genus Helianthus contains
about 6o species, chiefly natives of North America, a few being found in Peru and Chile. They are tall, hardy annual or perennial herbs, several of which are of easy cultivation in gardens with moderately good soil. H. decapetalus is a perennial about 5 ft. high with solitary heads about 2 in. across in slender twiggy branchlets; H. multiflorus is a beautiful species with several hand some double varieties; H. orygalis is a graceful perennial 6 to 1 o ft. high, with drooping willow-like leaves and numerous compara tively small yellow flower-heads. H. atrorubens is a smaller plant, 2 to 5 ft. high, the flower heads of which have a dark red or purple disk and yellow rays. There are many fine forms of this, some of which grow 6 to 9 ft. high and have much larger and finer flowers than the type. Other fine species are H. giganteus, io to 12 ft. ; and H. mollis, 3 to 5 ft. H. tuberosus is the Jerusalem artichoke.