STOCK OR OILLYFLO^VER. 27 



the Stock with double flowers, so that this im- 

 provement seems to have taken place between 

 the reigns of Elizabeth and Charles the First, 

 consequently, at the beginning of the seventeenth 

 century, but it is only within the present century 

 that its high state of perfection has been achieved. 

 We have two species of Stock indigenous to our 

 soil, but we are of opinion that the Garden Stock 

 has been raised from the seeds of the more fra- 

 grant Stock of the Greek islands, or of Italy, of 

 which Plutarch speaks in his book, De Amore 

 Fraterno, It is a plant that delights in the at- 

 mosphere of the sea, and consequently thrives 

 in Britain, where its culture has been so suc- 

 cessful 



the fifardcn yields 



A soft amusement, an lunnane delig;lit. 

 To raise th' insipid nature of the ground, 

 Or tame its savage genius to the grace 

 Of careless sweet rusticity, that seems 

 The amiable result of happy chance. 

 It to create, and give a god-like jov, 

 Which every year improves." 



Armstrong. 



Gerard only speaks of the purple or violet, 

 and the white Stocks ; but Parkinson speaks of 

 the crimson, and the Stock of a fair red colour, 

 as also of the variegated Stock. At the com- 

 mencement of the eighteenth century, London 



