88 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
The Hoary Stock (Matthiola incana), from which 
the Brompton Stocks of the garden are descended, 
and the Great Sea-stock (Jf sinwata), are very 
similar in their arrangements to the Wallflower; 
but they are well-nigh extinct in this country now, 
and hardly likely to come under the notice of our 
readers. The first-named has purple or violet flowers, 
with honey pouches; the Sea-stock is pale-violet, 
and is fragrant at night,—an indication that it caters 
for nocturnal moths.. 
There is not a great variety in the flower structure 
and adaptations in the Crosswort family, the majority 
being white or yellow, and self-fertilising. Some of 
them show clearly that they have fallen back from 
a condition when they sought insect aid in the 
fertilisation of their seed-eggs. There is one rough 
and ready way of telling at a glance whether a 
Crosswort desires to be cross- or self- fertilised ; if the 
stigma is lobed, as we saw it in Wallflower, it is of 
the former set; if it prefers to be fertilised by its 
own pollen, the stigma will form a rounded head. 
There is no need for the notched stigma to scrape 
pollen off the tongues of insects that do not come 
and are not even invited; for correlated with this 
globular stigma is the absence or reduction of honey, 
honey-glands, scent, and conspicuous petals. The 
anthers and stigmas also come to maturity together. 
Most of such flowers are white and small, but they 
contrive to produce a large number of seeds, and 
are everywhere abundant. 
Many of these little Crossworts have gone with 
colonising Europeans almost everywhere, and in 
many places have become an intolerable nuisance, so 
