PERENNIALS AND BIENNIALS 



I do not consider the purple blossoms of 

 Lunaria annua or biennis. Honesty, beautiful. 

 The odd flat seed-pods that appear in the fall are 

 sufficiently curious, however, to admit the plant to 

 the edges of the open woods. As long as it is con- 

 tent to remain there, well and good, but it must 

 keep out of the garden and off of the terraces. It 

 is easily raised from seed. 



Several years ago I planted a big root of Yucca 

 filamentosa, and the first year its leaves were a foot 

 high. Since then it has annually appeared and 

 grown a foot high, but it has never done anything 

 else. I am willing to wait for it to make up its 

 mind either to die or to go to work. 



I have done my best to induce different varie- 

 ties of Violet, Viola odorata, to grow on the 

 island, but the seeds uniformly refuse to germi- 

 nate, and some dozens of plants described as 

 hardy all died the first winter. 



About 1 893 seedsmen vied with each other in 

 extravagant praise of Centrosema grandiflora, or But- 

 terfly Pea, declaring it to be " a perfectly hardy 

 perennial vine of rare beauty, which blossoms in 

 July from seed sown in April, the plants growing 

 from six to eight feet in a single season, bearing 

 in great profusion pea-shaped flowers two and 



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