THE FARMER AT HOME. 335 



ter or not ; those which retain their leaves are called evergreens ; but 

 such as cast their leaves, are called deciduous. Some of these have 

 annual stalks, which die to the root every autumn, and shoot up 

 again in the spring. 



PERENNIAL PLANTS. In Gardening, are such as are of long 

 duration. Such plants as are perpetuated by the roots, whether the 

 leaves and stocks decay annually in winter, or always remain, pro- 

 vided the roots are of many years duration, are perennial. All plants, 

 therefore, with abiding roots, both of the herbaceous, shrub, and tree 

 kinds, are perennials ; though in the general acceptation of the word 

 perennial, it is most commonly applied to herbaceous vegetables with 

 durable roots, more especially those of the flowering kind, which, 

 among gardeners, are commonly called simple perennials, particularly 

 the fibrous-rooted tribe ; but it is equally applicable to fibrous, tuber- 

 jous, and bulbous-rooted plants, whose roots are of several years dura- 

 tion ; likewise all shrubs and trees of every denomination, as having 

 abiding roots, are perennial plants. 



PERIOD OF LIFE. The natural limit of human life seems to 

 be from 80 to 90 years. Few men survive that period the greater 

 majority die long before they even approach it. Of all new-born in- 

 fants, one out of four dies the first year. Two fifths only attain their 

 sixth year ; and, before the twenty-second year, one half of the gene- 

 ration is consigned to the grave. The order which death observes in 

 cutting off his victims, is one of the most wonderful phenomena in 

 nature the causes by which it is effected are too numerous and too 

 complicated to be here considered in detail. The unhealthy nature 

 of certain occupations, the impetuosity of the passions, and the cor- 

 ruption of manners, prove no less fatal to life than the original weak- 

 ness of the human frame. In general, the mean duration of human 

 life is between 30 or 40 years ; that is, out of 30 or 40 individuals, 

 one dies every year. 



Rare examples, however, of extreme longevity, of a life of 150 

 years and upwards, seem to be common to all countries without dis- 

 tinction. If England, the salubrity of which is so highly extolled, 

 has furnished three or four examples of men arriving at the age of 

 from 150 to 169 years, Hungary, which, generally speaking, is not a 

 very healthy country, has seen the celebrated Peter Czartan prolong 

 his life to the 185th year, and John Rovin, at the age of 172, had a 

 wife of 164, and a younger son of 117. It is in the Bannat of Teme* 

 suar, a very marshy district, and subject to the putrid fever, that these 

 examples of longevity, and many others, have been observed. A 

 mode of life, which is sober, and unruffled by tumultuous passions, 

 singularly contributes to longevity. According to the author of a very 

 curious little work, called the Apology for Fasting, 152 hermits, taken - 

 in all ages, and under every climate, produce a sum total of 11,58^ 

 years of life, and consequently an average of 76 years and a little 



