Sunflowers Turn East Before Sunrise
As every one knows, the sunflower turns its face toward the sun during the day, following the course of that luminary from east to west. But when does it turn back to face the rising sun? Probably most persons who have thought of the matter at all have supposed that it continued facing the west until morning, and then, as the sun came up, feeling the influence of its rays, turned again to the east. But a correspondent of Nature reports that when in Colorado, in 1881, he observed on the borders of a large irrigating ditch at sunset an abundant growth of the wild Helianthus annuus, with their broad faces all turned to the west; returning that way less than an hour later, and immediately after daylight was gone, he found, to his surprise, that much the greater part of the flowers had already turned their faces full to the east, in anticipation, as it were, of the sun's rising. In that short time they had retraced the semicircle which they had occupied the whole day in traversing under the influence of the sun. Unfortunately he has had no opportunity since to verify this interesting observation.—N. Y. Examiner.