OKXAMENTAL PLANTS. 79 



Sorthe7ie des Jardins. — Beautiful bright Magenta color, 

 with small spots of purple, very superb. 



Yulcain.—K small flower, but superb in color, being a 

 velvety purple shaded with maroon. 



ANNUALS. 



Plants that are generally called Annuals are those 

 which live but one season ; during this time they produce 

 their flowers and seeds, and then decay.^ The life of many 

 of these plants, and we may say all of them, can be pro- 

 longed for several years by merely protecting them from the 

 cold, and at the same time prevent the maturing of their 

 seed. The chief object of nature appears to be the per- 

 petuation of the species by seeds; and when by accident, or 

 otherwise, this is not accomplished at the period evidently 

 designed for it, the plant continues to live and struggle for 

 existence until an opportunity is afibrded for finishing 

 its work. 



The production of seed is of more vital importance to 

 the plant than the flowers, for it is this which exhausts its 

 strength, and Avith Annuals the main cause of death. That 

 this is true, we infer from the fact, that not only can most 

 of our Annuals be made Perennials, by simply preventing 

 the ripening of their seeds, but many of the double-flow- 

 ering A'arieties, which produce no seeds, are cultivated in 

 conservatories as Perennials, while others of the same 

 species with single flowers are only Annuals. Therefore 

 by nature a plant may be an Annual, but through the ef- 

 fects of artificial cultivation — such as propagation by cut- 

 tings, protection from the inclemency of the weather — it 



