Alternating Annual and Biennial Habit. 299 
beet, sown at the same time, was biennial. The same 
is true with other species. Seeds of the wild Daucits 
Car ota saved from annual plants gave me a large pro- 
portion of annuals ; but seeds from plants which had 
come through the winter gave a predominant proportion 
of biennials. On the other hand selection does not seem 
to lead to the production of annual races which would 
be free from occasional atavism. It is my custom now 
to cultivate my Oe not her a Lamarckiana and its derivative 
species mostly as annuals. Many of these cultures have 
been continued for six or more generations by means of 
the seeds of annual specimens only. Nevertheless every 
year there occur occasional and sometimes several bien- 
nial plants amongst them. 
Aster Tripolinm 1 is usually given as an annual in 
the floras, but with us it is represented by specimens 
which pass through the winter as well as by plants which 
flower in the first summer. In experimental sowings in 
the garden I obtained roughly equal numbers of the two 
types; but if I sowed the seed in March or April in the 
greenhouse the plants developed stems in the first year 
almost without exception. They were, as a rule, covered 
with glass every night until June, and thus protected 
from night frosts, and they were well treated also in 
other respects, especially by transplanting them soon 
after germination into rich well-manured garden soil. 
For according to my experience one of the best means 
of inducing biennial plants to behave as annuals is to give 
them plenty of manure, provided of course that the 
1 KOCH, Synopsis Florae Germanlcae et Helve ticac, p. 361. GRE- 
NIER ET GODRON, Flore de France, Vol. II, p. 102; KARSCH, Vade- 
mecum botamcnm etc. 
