THE GROWING PLANT 57 



repairing damages, as the healing of wounds (72), or the 

 replacement of leaves destroyed by insects or otherwise. 

 Annual plants (337) expend all their reserve food in flower 

 and seed production and then perish as soon as the seed 

 is ripe. Biennial plants devote the first season of their 

 life to storing an abundant food supply, which is ex- 

 pended in flower and seed production the second year. 

 Our seed crops, as oats, corn, peas and beans, are mostly 

 annuals ; our vegetables other than seeds, as beets, cab- 

 bage, parsnips and celery, are mostly biennials. Peren- 

 nial plants, in normal condition, expend only a part of 

 their reserve food in any one season for the production 

 of flowers and seeds, withholding the remainder for 

 nourishment through the winter and to develop leaves 

 the following spring. The reserve food in dormant cut- 

 tings (358) enables them to form roots and expand 

 their buds. 



