EFFLORESCENTIA

EFFLORESCENTIA, in Botany, (from effloresco to bloom); the precise time of the year and month in which every plant shows its first flowers.

Some plants flower twice a-year, as is common between the tropics; others oftener, as the monthly rose. The former are called by botanists bifera; the latter, multifera.

The time of flowering is determined by the degree of heat which each species requires. Mezereon and snow-drop produce their flowers in February; primrose, in the beginning of March; the greater number of plants, during the month of May; corn, and other grain, in the beginning of June; the vine, in the middle of the same month; several compound flowers, in the months of July and August; lastly, meadow-saffron flowers in the month of October, and announces the speedy approach of winter.

Graft of Parnassus always flowers about the time of cutting