44 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



tions in the corolla. The variations were all found on 

 the same plant. In two of the corollas the spur was absent 

 as was also the usual orange colored palate. The corolla in 

 both of these flowers consisted of five petals, but in one of 

 them there were four petals in the upper lip and one in the 

 lower while in the other flower all five petals were in the 

 position usually occupied by the upper lip. The corolla of a 

 third flower was tubular, about-three fourths of an inch long, 

 of greatest diameter at the base and tapering towards the 

 apex. At the base of this peculiarly formed corolla were 

 three spurs separated from one another by about one third of 

 the circumference of the tube. The apex of the corolla was 

 surmounted by an enlarged crown, circular in form, and 

 orange colored like the palate in the ordinary flower. At 

 the upper end of the tubular corolla just below the orange 

 colored crown were three petal-like tips equdistant from one 

 another. — /. B. Turner, Hamilton, Ontario. 



Plur-Annuals. — Climate and the varying hardiness of 

 plants has made it possible to divide vegetation into several 

 distinct groups depending upon their length of life. The an- 

 nuals last but a single season and the biennials store 

 up food the first season and flower and die the next. The 

 perennials, on the other hand, may live for many years and 

 commonly do not flower until one or more years old. There 

 are also variations of these groups. A winter annual is one 

 whose seeds being sown in autumn, germinate and last through 

 the winter to flower and fruit the following spring and then 

 to die. These plants show that annual plants are not all due 

 to the cold. Monocarpic plants are in a sense related to the 

 biennials. They have the nature of biennials, but store up 

 food for more than one season before the supreme effort of 

 flowering. A good illustration is the century plant which 

 does not take a century for food storing as so many people 

 believe. The term plur-annual is rarest of all, though ex- 



