1863.] REVIEWS. 405 



weeksj a few months, or a few years, should be understood as 

 expressing the duration of plants which only flower once, and 

 then decay. Whatever may be the length of time elapsing be- 

 tween their first springing from seed, reaching maturity, and 

 perishing, they agree in this, that they only flower once in their 

 lives. It is possible to prolong the existence of these plants by 

 preventing their flowering, and also by cutting off their flowers 

 before the seed is come to maturity ; but no plant which flowers 

 more than once from the same root, or on the same stem or 

 branch, can with any propriety be called an annual or a bien- 

 nial. That an annual or a truly biennial plant can flower two 

 or three times, even by accident, is a fact which needs confirma- 

 tion strong as Holy Writ, ere it can be received into any ortho- 

 dox phytological confession of faith. We will not own it, for it 

 forms no part of our botanical creed. 



The modern terms annual and biennial, in their natural legi- 

 timate sense and usual application, are deceptive and misleading 

 expressions, and should be abandoned. 



Some plants, popularly named annuals, have but a very short 

 duration. Several Fungi do not exist above a day; some herba- 

 ceous plants barely survive a month. There are biennials which 

 live only a few months, and there are others which endure se- 

 veral years. 



The term ' perennial ' is also very indefinite, embracing species 

 which live a few years, and others which live, it may be said, for 

 ever. 



The Resedas and Saponarias are examples ; some of the for- 

 mer barely flower twice, while the common Soapwort has a sem- 

 piternal duration. 



Into which class is the American Aloe to be put ? This plant 

 is said to flower once in a century. 



There are some species which are annual in one country, and 

 perennial in another. How are they to be classified, as annuals 

 or perennials ? 



M. Crepin concludes his note on the duration of Cynoglossum 

 sylvaticum, for which we own our obligations to Mr. Sim, with the 

 following : " C'est du reste la un fait assez frequemment observe 

 chez les plantes bisannuelles." If our author means that bien- 

 nial species are frequently observed to flower thrice, or even 

 twice, in two or three successive seasons, it is a fact which the 

 editor of the ' Phytologist ' has never seen, nor even heard of, 



