_H. giganteus_ grows 10 feet high; stem much branched and disposed to
curve. Flowers about 2½ 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. lævigatus._--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 3½
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 is, clasping the
stalk by their opposite base. The plant spreads rapidly by running