other characters in the flowers so as to form the bases of subdivision. For this purpose Linnæus adopted the polygamy, or intermixture of the sexes in the florets.

The characters of the class Syngenesia being of a decidedly different nature from other flowers may be easily known. It consists, first, in the congeneration of the anthers, which is uniform through all its numerous genera; and, secondly, that more than one floret is always contained in each calyx; this is sufficient to determine any plant to belong to the 19th class, Syngenesia.

The Sun-flower, more particularly the single one, presents you with a clear idea of the class and order to which it belongs, since you see the parts on a large scale. The common receptacle supporting all the numerous florets on its surface, each of these florets are, in fact, a separate monopetalous flower, having within itself the parts necessary for the formation of seed.

These numerous florets are surrounded by a ray of petals, whose office is to protect the whole of the interior assemblage of flowers, as the houses of a city are surrounded by a wall. This flower is placed in the third order or division of the class Syngenesia, and which order is named Polygamia Frustranea, because the florets of the margin next the petals are neuter, that is, containing neither

stigma nor anthers-which is expressed by the term Frustranea, from frustra, to no purpose. The florets of the disk or centre of the flower are bisexual, containing a pistil headed by a divided stigma, termed bipartic, which is surrounded by five anthers. Each of these florets is succeeded by a seed; and so numerous are the florets in a large single Sun-flower, that Barchin tells us he has known them contain 2362 seeds in one flower. The more double this flower becomes the less seed it produces, as it becomes double by the change of the tubular into ligular florets, like the petals in the ray, only smaller.

The seeds of the Sun-flower when peeled have a taste similar to sweet almonds, and from their oily nature they are excellent food for fattening domestic poultry; but it is with difficulty they can be preserved from the ravages of the sparrow, who cats them with the greatest avidity, leaving the receptacle like an empty honeycomb.

In the United States of America the Sun-flower is cultivated on a large scale, for the purpose of preparing oil from the seeds, which is good-tasted, and fit for salads, and all the purposes for which olive-oil is used. The whole plant, and particularly the flower, exudes a thin, pellucid, odorous resin, resembling Venice turpentine.

For ornamental purposes the seed should be

saved from the largest and most double flowers, which will be found on the top of the principal stem, those on the side branches being smaller, and frequently having abortive seeds. When the seeds are ripe, the heads should be cut off with a part of the stem, and hung up in a dry airy place for a few weeks, when they may be rubbed out and put into bags or boxes until the time of sowing, which is during the month of March.

The seed should be sown on a bed of common earth, and when the plants are about six inches high they may be removed, with a ball of earth to their roots, and planted where they are to flower; but we prefer setting the seeds where they are to remain, as the plants are generally finer than those that have been removed.

This showy flower is a general favourite with rustic gardeners, which is thus noticed by Clare in his "Village Minstrel :"

And Sun-flower planting for their gilded show,
That scale the window's lattice ere they blow;

Then, sweet to habitants within the sheds,

Peep through the diamond panes their golden heads.

The Perennial Sun-flower, Helianthus Multiflorus, is a native plant of Virginia, and is of long standing in our gardens, since it is both described and figured in Gerard's Herbal, who observes that he had never seen the seed. The Perennial Sun

flower rarely produces seeds in England, but it is easily increased by parting the roots, and is by far the most desirable kind for ornamenting the shrubbery, since it continues to give out a multitude of flowers from the month of July to the end of October. This plant is remarkable for not being affected by the smoky atmosphere of London, and is one amongst the small number of plants that will flourish in our overgrown capital.

The tuberous-rooted Helianthus, or Jerusalem Artichoke, has already been noticed at some length in the first volume of the History of Cultivated Vegetables. America has afforded us eleven other species of the Helianthus, which are seldom cultivated excepting in botanical gardens.

CHINA ASTER, OR CHINESE STARWORT. Aster Chinensis.

Natural Order Compositi Radiati. Corymbifera and Radiati, Juss. A Genus of the Syngenesia Polygamia Superflua Class.

As from a cloud his fulgent head
And shape star-bright appear'd.

The

THE numerous family of radiated flowers were named Aster, from the Greek 'Aorǹg, a star. French call this autumnal flower Reine Marguerite, Queen Daisy, and not Queen Margaret, as it is generally translated, Marguerite being their name for "the Star-like Daisy." The Chinese generic term for this flower is Keang nam fa.

The European parterres are indebted to the missionary, Father d'Incarville, for the gay robe which this various coloured flower throws over them, during the latter months of Flora's reign,he having sent the seeds from China to the Royal Garden of Paris about the year 1730, where the plants produced only simple flowers of one uniform colour, but which, through cultivation and change of soil, soon became both so doubled in petals, and