26 FLORA HISTORICA. 



florist, that what was, in the time of Queen Eli- 

 zabeth, but one degree removed from a small 

 mountain or sea-side flower, may now be com- 

 pared to a shrub in point of size, whose branches 

 are covered with blossoms but little inferior to 

 the Rose in size, whilst they are as thick set as 

 the flowers on the Mazereon branch, forming, on 

 the whole, a mass of brilliant beauty, that is not 

 exceeded by any of the exotics that Asia, Africa, 

 or America, has poured into our gardens of plea- 

 sure. 



We have seen branches of the Carmine Stock 

 exhibited at meetings of the London Horticultural 

 Society that had the appearance of ropes of Roses, 

 and we have had them growing in our own gar- 

 den of extraordinary size and beauty; but the 

 largest we have yet met with was in the garden 

 of Mr. Stockdale, at Notting Hill, near Bays- 

 water, which measured eleven feet nine inches in 

 circumference when in flower, in the month of 

 May, 1822. 



At what exact period we first obtained double 

 flowers from the Stock Gillyflower is uncertain ; 

 but neither Turner, or Gerard, appear to have 

 heard of such a thing in their time, although the 

 latter both speaks and gives us a good figure of 

 the Wall Gillyflower in its double state. In the 

 year 1629, both Johnson and Parkinson write on 



