It may not be generally known that the sunflower (Helianthus annuus), which has lately been brought into such notoriety by the "aesthetic" school, has considerable claims to attention from an industrial point of view. Its somewhat nut-like seeds - or, as Baron Ferdinand von Muller describes them "seed-like nutlets" - afford an excellent oil, which is not only useful as a lubricant for machinery, but is one of the best of table oils. The seeds, again, afford admirable food for poultry, the stocks furnish a good textile fibre, and the blossoms yield a brilliant, lasting yellow dye. So highly does Baron von Muller think of the virtues of the plant that he includes it in his list of selected plants suitable for acclimatization and industrial cultivation in the Colony of Victoria. As much as fifty bushels of seedlings have been obtained from an acre of ground, under favorable conditions, and as much as fifty gallons of oil can be pressed from such a crop. When he states that about six pounds of seeds are required to sow an acre, from which such an enormous return is possible, it is scarcely surprising to be told that " the return from a sunflower field is attained within a few months." The plants, the same authority states, prefer calcareous soil.

Baron von Muller, however, has not by any means exhausted the list of virtues which the plant possesses. The Chinese, who have so far appreciated its properties as to use its fibre in adulterating and dyeing their silk fabrics, and its oil not only as a lubricant but as an illuminant, state that its flowers supply the best bee food, and that the "cake" left after expressing the oil is superior to linseed cake as a food for cattle. The leaves are also employed as a substitute for or for mixing with tobacco, and as an ingredient in soap manufacture the oil is highly prized. In face of such testimony to its good qualities, it is interesting to know that several acres of land are to be sown with sunflowers in the Thames valley next year. Will the "aesthetes" discard the flower as a symbol of their faith when they find it is actually turned to commercial purposes? - Colonies and India.