SECT. XV1I1. OF FLOWERS. 289 



SECTION XVIII. 



OF FLOWERS. 



.Flowers, the sole luxury which Nature knew, 



In Edens pure and guiltless garden grew ; 



Gay without toil, and lovely without art, 



They sprung to cheer the seiise, and glad the heart. 



BAUBAULD. 



Jb LOWERS, as to their cultivation, are classed 

 into annuals, biennials, and perennials. Annuals are 

 those that are sown and flower, and generally die 

 within a year. Biennials are those that are sown 

 one year, and flower and generally die the next ; 

 though some of these, by sowing early, and forward- 

 ing by a little heat, will blow the same year. Peren- 

 nials are those that do not flower the year they are 

 sown, but the next, and continue to live years aiter- 

 wards> some fewer, some more : Of this class there 

 is a great variety, (perhaps fifty to one of the last) 

 mostly fibrous rooted, some fleshy, some bulbous, 

 and some tuberous, &c. Most of the perennials 

 are annual in their stalks, which die down to the 

 ground in winter, and fresh roots rise in the spring. 

 But, strictly speaking, all of each class are not an- 

 nual, biennial, and perennial ; for some of the an- 

 nuals come (though more weakly) a second, or a 

 third year, as Chinese holyhock and Indian pink, and 

 a few others, (which die abroad) would live through 

 the winter if housed, as Nastartium. Of the bien- 

 nials, the same may be said of the stock July-ftozver, 

 sweet IVilliam, and wall flower ; only the tormer o 

 these plants does riot always live through the winter. 



