158 
PERENNIAL FLOWERS. 
PERENNIAL FLOWERS. 
Perennials are all such plants as have suffructi- 
cious or herbaceous stems, which are not woody like 
shrubs, but have permanent roots of many years du¬ 
ration. They are of two kinds, viz: Deciduous, and 
Evergreen. Deciduous herbaceous plants include those 
whose stems die down every year, and grow up again 
in the following spring. Evergreen herbaceous plants 
comprise such as retain their leaves all the winter; of 
these, some are bulbous-rooted, as tulips, lilies, &c., 
others tuberous-rooted, as Poeonias, commelina, dah¬ 
lias, &c., or fibrous rooted as Phloxes, rudbeckias, 
and hardy herbaceous plants in general, to which the 
term is chiefly applied. Perennial plants are (next to 
shrubs) the principal plants for decorating the flower 
garden; and being mostly of a hardy nature, requir¬ 
ing but little care, are easily managed. From the 
great variety of them, and the different periods at 
which they flower, they are of much importance in 
every garden. 
The tall growing kinds are chiefly planted in open 
spaces, amongst the shrubbery, and at the back of the 
borders ; and the dwarf ones in the spaces in front, or 
intermixed with other plants in the flower beds; and if 
they are carefully arranged according to their heights 
of growth, times of flowering, and colors of the flow¬ 
ers, they produce a very agreeable effect. To secure 
handsome plants, they should stand at a sufficient dis¬ 
tance from each other, for if crowded, they will injure 
■each others 5 figure. 
