EVERLASTING FLOWERS 207 



or biennials, partaking thus of the characteristic 

 of the parent from which they derived their 

 doiibleness of blossoms. This is perhaps what 

 might have been expected. It is notable, how- 

 ever, that the quality of annual or biennial 

 growth should have reappeared in these hybrids 

 of the second generation, the first-generation 

 hybrids having been, as already noted, all 

 perennials. 



But, on the other hand, some of the second- 

 generation hybrids were perennials, and have 

 continued to live and thrive, bearing large quan- 

 tities of blossoms each season. 



Thus the perennial and annual habit ap- 

 peared, in the case of these two poppies, to be a 

 pair of unit characters of which the perennial 

 habit was dominant and the annual habit reces- 

 sive; there being a characteristic segregation in 

 the second generation. 



As to habit of blooming, there was another in- 

 teresting anomaly. The opium poppy, a strict 

 annual, blossoms only for a short period — for 

 a few weeks at most. The oriental poppy, 

 although a perennial, also blooms but a short 

 time. The first generation hybrid poppies 

 bloom persistently. There is not a day in the 

 year when some of these hybrids are not in 

 bloom, spring, summer, autumn, or winter — 



