[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 is, clasping the stalk by their opposite base.  The plant spreads rapidly by running rootstocks, and ripens seed in abundance.  Figured as H. pubescens in Botanical Magazine, tab. 2,778.

H. divaricatus resembles the last, but is inferior, being a smaller plant in all parts, especially in the flowers, which come out a month later.  The cauline leaves are stalked and diverge widely, which habit gives its name to the plant.  A casual observer would hardly notice the difference between this species and the last, but when grown together the superiority of doronicoides as a garden plant is at once evident.

H. strumosus.—­Fully 6 feet high; growth upright; rootstock less spreading than the last two; leaves on very short stalks, broadest at the base, ovate tapering by a long narrow point; flower disk narrow, but rays large and orange-yellow; flowers showy, 3 inches across; they come out late in August.  I had this plant from Kew.  The shape of the leaves would have led me rather to refer it to H. trachelifolius, a closely allied species.

H. decapetalus.—­Five feet high; flowers from end of July; makes a dense forest of weak, slender stalks, much branched at the top; spreads fast; leaves serrate, oblong-ovate, rather large; flowers abundant, pale yellow, about 2 inches across; rays nearly always more than ten, in spite of the name.