SPRING BLOSSOMS. 217 



into the future elements of fruit and flower anel 

 seed and woody tissue. What looks to us a mere 

 inert and lifeless expanse of green matter is in 

 reality a living theatre of the most varied activities. 

 Chief amongst them all are the manufacture and 

 storing away of the raw material which must ulti- 

 mately be used up in the final production of the 

 beautiful blossoms, and of the useful fruit and 

 necessary seed for whose benefit they really exist. 

 Now, annual plants sprout from the seed in the 

 first days of spring, or even in the sunniest winter 

 weather ; but, before they can lay up enough 

 material to supply the wants of the flower and the 

 fruit, they must form a considerable number of 

 healthy leaves, and raise their stem to a reasonable 

 height above tlie surrounding ground from which 

 they have sprouted. This of course requires a 

 moderate lapse of time for its proper accom})lish- 

 ment. And so every amateur gardener must have 

 noticed for himself that annuals never in any case 

 supply the earliest spring or summer flowers. 

 For the most part they do not begin to blossom 

 freely beiore June or July, while many of the 

 larger ones, like sunflowers and thorn-apples, 

 scarcely manage to come into full bloom before 

 the middle of August or September. It is the 

 perennials that afford us all our early blossoming 

 garden favorites, and that deck the beds witli 

 crimson, orange, pink, and yellow before the winds 



