18 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



if needed. The editor has moved many plants the past sum- 

 mer, often when they were in full bloom without the loss of 

 a single one. Plants to go a long way by mail are best sent 

 in spring or fall, but in moving them from the field to your 

 home, any time will do. 



Biennials are Rare Plants. — A writer in a recent num- 

 ber of Nature Notes holds that there are no true biennial 

 plants and insists that if left to themselves all plants that are 

 not strictly perennials will reproduce themselves within the 

 year. The contention is that the reason our carrots, parsnips 

 and the like are biennials, that is, take two years to come to 

 maturity and ripen their seeds, is because we hold their seeds 

 back in autumn and do not plant them until spring. In the 

 regions to which they are native the seeds fall from the plant 

 in autumn, begin to grow and enduring the winter as seed- 

 lings ripen new seeds within twelve months. That they appear 

 adjusted to two years of life by reason of the nourishment 

 which it is their habit to store in the taproot is no criterion, for 

 the radish which fruits within a quarter of a year, has this 

 same habit. It is well-known, as bearing on the subject, that 

 certain annuals may be made to live in two years by sowing 

 their seeds too late for fruition in one, while other annuals 

 may be made to simulate perennials by preventing all fruit- 

 ing. . But casting aside all the plants that are not true biennials, 

 according to our definition, we still have the century plants 

 that are neither, annuals nor perennials but that still require 

 several seasons for growth. These are usually called plur- 

 annuals. No doubt many other plants may be found that 

 after all, seem to prefer two seasons in which to grow. At 

 present a biennial is usually defined as a plant that requires 

 two years in which to come to maturity. We may have to 

 modify this and put it that a biennial is a plant that prefers 

 the warmer parts of two years to come to maturity. 



