184 GATI.LARDIA AMBLYODON. BLUNT-TOOTH BLANKETFLOWER. 



species of Gaillardia, is an annual ; but it is very easily propa- 

 gated by cuttings, and in this way one individual can be con- 

 tinued for years, or even indefinitely. Flower gardeners, indeed, 

 usually prefer jDlants raised by cuttings to those raised from seed, 

 as the former are more floriferous, and come into bloom earlier 

 in the season. The fact that annual plants can be made perma- 

 nent by being propagated from year to year by cuttings, is in 

 itself very interesting, as it shows that the difference between an 

 annual and a perennial plant is very slight, physiologically. 

 There is vital power enough in the branches, even of annuals, 

 to continue cell-growth indefinitely ; but the roots do not receive 

 their full share of the benefits from leaf action, the food manu- 

 factured by the leaves being exhausted in the production of the 

 flowers, and the roots are therefore too weak for permanence. 



It would be well worth while to take the Blanketflower in 

 hand, with a view to the production of what are technically 

 known as double flowers. Among composites the so-called 

 double flowers are not double, however, in the sense in which a 

 rose or a carnation is double. In the case of these latter plants 

 the stamens change to petals ; in the composites the corollas of 

 the small disk-florets, which are normally tubular, are changed 

 into strap-shaped corollas, similar to those of the ray flowers. 

 It is very likely that this change might be brought about in our 

 Gaillardia. 



So far as we know, our species has only been found in Texas, 

 where it grows in sandy, gravelly soil along the Brazos. The 

 home of the whole genus, indeed, seems to be in Texas and the 

 dry territory immediately to the north and west of that state. 



Under cultivation the plant continues in bloom from June 

 until frost sets in. 



Explanation of the Plate. — i. Flower-shoot terminated by a half-mature head. — 

 2. Flower-shoots in full bloom. 



(XoTE. — We have had room in the plate only for the upper portion of the flower-stems. 

 The lower and younger would probably be more hirsute, and the leaves more denticulate than 

 shown in the plate.) 



