CHAPTER VI 



ANNTJAiS 



It is with annual rather ihan with biennial 

 or with perennial plants that most planters of 

 small city gardens are familiar. The three 

 groups are well marked and the characteristics 

 of each well defined. Annuals, strictly speak- 

 ing, are plants which normally survive but a 

 single season, maturing from seed, producing 

 seed and completing their cycle of life. Bien- 

 nials live two years and the term, accurately 

 applied, describes an exceedingly small group 

 of plants which do not bear flowers or fruit 

 until the second season following the planting 

 of the seed. Of all the species of seed-bearing 

 plants, it has been estimated that only one or 

 two' per cent, are true biennials. Perennials 

 live from year to year and include, naturally, 

 trees, shrubs and herbs, but, as the term is gen- 

 erally employed in relation to decorative gar- 

 dening, it is applied to those non-woody plants 

 more properly known as "hardy herbaceous 



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