HOW TO SUCCEED 27 



Canterbury bells all died." Of course, they did; 

 their time had arrived and they went the way of 

 their kind. This, person should have known that 

 some plants are biennials, of which the Canterbury 

 bell is one. Biennials, relatively few in garden 

 cultivation, bloom normally in their second sum- 

 mer from seed; then they die. Occasionally, when 

 the seed is sown later than spring, they survive 

 two winters. 



Annuals, as the name implies, are plants of a 

 year. They are born in the spring and if their 

 life has not spent itself by the end of autumn the 

 winter's cold blots it out. In gardens, seedlings 

 from sowings too late in the year to bring the 

 plants to maturity will sometimes bravely endure 

 a winter rather than perish in unfruitfulness. The 

 name annual is necessarily elastic in the usage of 

 cold climates, as freezing will kill some plants 

 that naturally would go on flourishing. Thus the 

 four-o'clock, unless the root is taken up and stored 

 for the winter, is an annual in the North, though 

 in its native tropics it is a perennial. 



Strictly speaking, all trees and shrubs as well 

 as those herbs that are neither annual nor bi- 

 ennial are perennials; the first two are differen- 

 tiated as woody, the last as herbaceous. In garden 

 usage perennial is hardy herbaceous perennial, for 

 short. Herbaceous plant and hardy plant are oc- 

 casional alternatives. Bulbs, although veritable 

 herbaceous perennials, are usually classed by them- 

 selves; which is convenient if it is not botanical. 



