TO THE FLOWER GARDEN. 187 



sion is obtained of a good strain of Stock, whicli produces Lat 

 few single-flowered ones out of a great number, there is not 

 much difficulty in keeping it, for the Stock has a strong dis- 

 position to go double ; and when a few single ones only 

 escape this tendency they may be expected to yield seed 

 equally disposed to produce double flowers. On the other 

 hand, if we remove a single Stock from among hundreds of 

 others equally single, and of a batch or strain which has no 

 disposition to go double, that single one would not yield in 

 its progeny one more double variety for being planted among 

 a thousand double ones ; so that the common advice to save 

 seed from such single-flowered plants as grow near many 

 double ones is good for nothing, unless the single ones come 

 from the same " strain," and have the same disposition as 

 the double ones themselves, that is to say, are of the same 

 progeny. In other words, the planting of a thousand double 

 Stocks around a single one does not cliange the nature of its 

 seed ; but the tendency to doubleness is an inherent property 

 brought about in certain plants or batches of plants by careful 

 culture and seed-saving, as all other floral improvements have 

 been, and is not shared by other plants or batches of plants, 

 though of the very same kind, which have not been so in- 

 fluenced. The single-flowered plants only bear seed. The 

 tendency to doubleness is sometimes indicated by the pro- 

 duction of flowers with more than the usual number of petals 

 (four), and when this is observed it may be taken as a favour- 

 able indication, and such blossoms should be marked, and 

 their seed kept separately. The Ten-week Stocks should be 

 sown in March, April, and May, for summer and autumn- 

 blooming plants : they may be sown in boxes, in a frame, or 

 on prepared sheltered beds. When up give plenty of air, and 

 no more water than is just enough to keep them from flagging. 

 When they have formed six good leaves plant them out in a 

 bed of rich soil, or pot them off in rich soil, and give plenty 

 of water until they bloom. For earlier spring bloom they 

 as well as what is called the Intermediate Stock, should be 

 sown in August and September, and wintered in pots in dry 

 cold frames. The Bromptou and Queen Stocks may be sown 

 in the open border thinly, in June, and the plants, when large 

 enough, planted out in sheltered places where they are to 



