For April, 1921 



537 



Annual and Biennial Plants— Some of Their Uses 



ROBERT CAMERON 



To make this subject more interesting, I shall have to 

 deal with it broadly ; first dealing with the origin of 

 annual plants, geographical distribution, the im- 

 provement by selection and breeding, importance of good 

 seed, cultivation of annuals, pleasing arrangement in the 

 flower, garden, etc. 



Some of you may say, "Why take up these subjects, 

 we only want to know about the culture and arrange- 

 ment of these plants?" There is just this to say, that 

 the gardener must be conversant with everything that is 

 known about plants to keep up with the progress of gar- 

 dening in this country. With this information it is much 

 easier to know what treatment to give to the various 

 plants, hence the reason of taking up geographical dis- 

 tribution. 



You are all well aware that herbaceous perennials have 

 been much more popular than annual plants. The prin- 

 cipal reason given for this popularity is that perennials 

 had not to be planted each year and that after being 

 planted once, they needed very little care. This is all 

 humbug. A perennial garden to be successful needs just 

 as much care as annual plants require, as you all know 

 that there are no plants in cultivation but need attention 

 and the more one gives to them the greater will the 

 success be. This applies to plants indoors as well as out 

 of doors. Consequently, annual plants need no more 

 work or care than any other plants and as to showiness 

 and floriferousness, we have nothing to compare with 

 them. 



Annual plants give more pleasure to a larger number 

 of persons, are less expensive, easier to grow and give 

 quicker results than any plants that are grown in our 

 gardens. They are the poor man's as well as the rich 

 man's. They are not like the orchid family which can 

 only be grown by the wealthy. They are. in fact, the 

 real plants for the masses. There is no excuse for the 

 poorest people to be without flowers, for if they do not 

 possess any land, they surely can get a flower box. 



To discuss this subject I will have to include biennial 

 plants because they are so important in our gardens and 

 throughout this discussion I will have to speak freriuently 

 of herbaceous perennials. 



An annual plant from a horticultural standpoint is 

 a showy flowering plant which lives but one season and 

 consequently requires to be raised from seed each year. 



A biennial is a showy flowering plant which is pro- 

 duced from seed in one year and the year following it 

 blossoms, ripens its seed and usually dies. 



These definitions do not always hold good as there 

 arc some annuals that can be kept longer than one year 

 if rcstramed from flowering. There are some plants that 

 are called annuals that are perennials in their native 

 countries but we raise them each year from seed, hence 

 the reason for calling them annuals. 



Although this paper is supposed to he confined to showy 

 flowering annual plants, we should not forget how im- 

 portant the economic annuals and biennials are. .Are 

 not most of our garden and farm vegetables annuals and 

 biennials? I am not quite sure but annual and biennial 

 fond plants are of more importance to luan than those 

 obtained from perennial food plants. 



ORIGIN OF ANNUALS. 



No doubt some of you have wondered, as I have, why 

 Nature gave such a short period of time to these plants 



to complete the cycle of life, while to others she has 

 given an almost indefinite time to live. Why are they 

 so short lived and have they been always annuals? 

 These are puzzling questions and very little has been 

 written about them. 



We are told by scientists that flowering plants have 

 come to us from a remote period, from the higher Cryp- 

 togams, such as Selaginellas and Lycopodiums ; that the 

 Gymnosperms such -as Conifera and Cycadacece were 

 probably the first plants to produce seeds ; then probably 

 came the woody trees and shrubs, and after that the 

 herbaceous plants, and no doubt after these came the 

 annuals and biennials. To answer the question as to why 

 they are so short lived — it probably came about in this 

 way : At one time, where these plants were growing 

 they were about to be driven out of existence by some 

 agents — probably by cold in cold climates and by drought 

 and heat in dry and hot climates. When a plant's life is 

 in danger it always tries to reproduce itself. Therefore 

 these plants under those hard conditions flowered early 

 and produced an abundance of seeds which carried them 

 through the trying seasons and they were able to again 

 reproduce themselves when congenial conditions pre- 

 vailed. Doing this same thing for many years they 

 inherited this mode of reproducing themselves annually 

 from seed, and were saved in this way from e.xtinction. 

 This change did not take place all at once, but required 

 a long period of time. The whole question is one of 

 environment and inheritance. 



THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



We hear a great deal about trees and shrubs that come 

 from China and Japan to adorn our gardens. I wish to 

 point out to you that in having a garden of annuals you 

 can not only have plants from the temperate regions, 

 but you can also have plants from every tropical country 

 in the world. The annual plants we have in our garden 

 come from all parts of the world and any one who loves 

 variety in the garden cannot get along without them. 

 They are not like the herbaceous perennials of which we 

 can only grow such kinds as come from cold climates 

 that will stand our severe Winter. 



Let us look at a short li.st of the most important genera 

 so that we can see how our Summer gardens are sup- 

 plied. 



From the East Indies have come Aiimrantlius cauda- 

 iiis. Caccalia coccinca, Celosia cristata and pymniidalis. 

 DoUchos difl^erent species, most of the annual gourds, 

 Impaticns balsamina, the balsam, and Thunbcrgm alata. 



From China we have Callistcplius Chhicnsis or China 

 Asters. Dianthus Chinensis and Pcrilla Xankincnsix. 



Australia has given us Acroclinium roscum, Ainmo- 

 biitm alafiiiji, Brachycome or Swan River Daisy, Caphal- 

 ipteriim Drummondii, Didisciis cwrclciis, Helichrys^ii'm, 

 Heliptemm or Rhodanthe, Podolcpis gracilis and 

 U'ahlcnhergia gracilis. 



Africa has given us Arctotis, Cryptostomma, Diiiior- 

 'pliotcca. Hchenstrctia. Lobelia erinus, Limim grandi- 

 tluruin, MaJopc, Ncmesia and Scnccio clegans. 



Mexico gave us Agcratum Mcxicamtm, Argemone 

 Mexicana and grandiflora, Cosmos bipinnatus, Loplio- 

 sperminn scaitdcns, Maurandya Barclayana, Samntallia, 

 Tagctes crccta and patula. Zinnia elegans and H aageana. 



From Europe, Antirrhinum majus. Calendula oflici- 

 nalis, Centaurea cyanus, C om'oh'idus tricolor, Delphinium 



