sa Gray, which he tells us
resembles tall forms of H. rigidus, with rough stalks, and bears flowers
with numerous rays 11/2 inches long.

[Illustration: FLOWER OF HELIANTHUS ANNUUS.]

_H. occidentalis._--Recently introduced by Mr. W. Thompson, of Ipswich,
who gave me the plant two years ago. It is a neat species, growing about 2
feet high, well branched, and producing at the end of July abundance of
flowers about 2 inches across. The lower leaves are small and broad, with
long stalks, ovate in form.

[Illustration: HELIANTHUS MULTIFLORUS FL-PL.]

_H. mollis_, so called from the soft white down with which the leaves are
covered, grows about 4 feet high. Leaves large, ovate, and sessile; growth
of the plant upright, with hardly any branches; flowers pale yellow, about
3 inches across, not very ornamental. Cultivated at Kew, whence I had it.

_H. giganteus_ grows 10 feet high; stem much branched and disposed to
curve. Flowers about 21/2 inches across, produced abundantly in August; rays
narrow and pointed, cupped, with the ends turning outward; leaves
lanceolate and sessile; rootstock creeping, forming tuberous thickenings
at the base of the stems, which Asa Gray tells us were "the Indian potato
of the Assiniboine tribe," mentioned by Douglas, who called the plant H.
tuberosus.

[Illustration: FULL SIZED FLOWER OF HELIANTHUS MULTIFLORUS.]

_H. maximiliani._--Half the height of the last, which it resembles, but
the stem is stouter, the leaves larger, as are also the flowers, which are
produced later. It is not so floriferous and ornamental as the last.

_H. laevigatus._--Smooth stalked, very distinct, does not spread at the
roots, which are composed of finer fibers than those of most of the genus;
stalks slender and black, growing closely together, branched near the
summit, 5 feet high; leaves narrowly lanceolate and acute; flowers
plentiful and about 2 inches across; rays few, and disk small.

We are warned that the following species are "difficult of extrication,"
either confluent or mixed by intercrossing.

_H. doronicoides._--I place this the third in merit among perennial
sunflowers, H. rigidus and H. multiflorus being first and second. It is 6
feet or 7 feet high, upright in growth, with many stalks. Flowers 31/2
inches across, produced from the end of July to the end of September,
bright golden yellow; leaves large, ovate, tapering from the middle to
both ends; stalk leaves sessile and nearly connate, that