34 BIENNIAL AND PEHENNIAL PLANTS. 



sown in September, or as soon as ripe ; and if the plants get 

 strong before winter sets in, some of them will flower the 

 ensuing summer. The following are among the hardiest : 



Adonis, Sprins-flowering. Lychnis, in varieties. 



Alpine Columbine. Larkspur, perennial. 



Alyssum, yellow. Rose Campion, in varieties. 



Bee Larkspur. Rocket, in varieti^-s. 



Columbine, in varieties. Scabious, in varieties. 



Evening Primro=e. Valerian, Garden. 



Fox-glove, in varieties. Veronica. 



Fraxinella. Everlasting Peas,') .. ^ 



Hollyhock, in varieties. Virgin's Bovver, 3 '"^ '"°" 



It may be necessary here to remind the reader of those 

 species of beautiful double-flowering Perennial herbaceous 

 plants, which do not produce seed; some of tliese are in- 

 cluded in our Catalogue ; they may be obtained at the nur- 

 series, and should be introduced into the regular flower-beds, 

 either in autumn or early in the spring ; the best mode of 

 increasing these, and all double-flowering Perennials raised 

 from seed, is by layers, cuttings, offsets, &c., detached from 

 tlie old plants.* 



As the earth in the flower-beds will require to be fresh 

 dug and replenished with good compost or manure once in 

 two or three years, it may be necessary to take up all the 

 Perennial plants at such times. Such roots as are overgrown 

 should be dej^rived of their surplus offsets, and either jolanted 

 in a nursery-bed, or returned with the parent plants into the 



* It may here be observed, that the most certain method of obtaining dou- 

 ble, flowers, is by propagation from Perennial plants. Many seed custom- 

 ers ifcel disappointed if they do not in every case procure double flowers from 

 Eced, which is unreasonal)le, because, although seed will, under ordinary 

 circumstances, reproduce its species, it will by no means uniformly pro- 

 duce the particular variety by which it was borne. The ex-ierience of 

 numerous amateurs will corroborate this fact, who frequently, after saving 

 seed from their most perfect flowers, have the mortification of witness- 

 ing such degeneracy the following season as would lead them to doubt 

 its identity, had the seed been obtained from any other source. Seed gath 

 ered from double Balsams, or Lady Slippers, for instance, will frequently 

 produce senu-double and single flowers the next season, 



