Herbs, or HERBACEOUS PLANTS, are those which do not form a persistent woody stem above ground. They are annual, biennial, or perennial. An annual springs from seed, blossoms and dies in one season.
A biennial vegetates only during the first growing season, and stores up nourishment in its root-stock which persists through the winter; during the second growing season the root-stock sends up flowering shoots, and after fructification the whole plant dies. When the root-stock perennates, and only the aerial shoots die at the end of each growing season, the plant is perennial. See POT-HERBS.