REMARKS ON THE FLOWERING STOCKS. Ill 



The Stock-gilliflower has been long established in the English 

 gardens, and is indeed a native of the cliffs by the sea-side. The 

 old English name of Gillifiower, which is now almost lost in the 

 prefix, Stock, is corrupted from the French girqflier. Chaucer writes 

 it Gylofre, but, by associating it with the nutmeg and other spices, 

 appears to mean the Clove-tree, which is, in fact, the proper signifi- 

 cation of that word. 



Turner calls it Gelover and Gelyfloure ; Gerarde and Parkinson, 

 Gilloflower. Thus, having wandered from its original orthography, 

 it was corrupted into July-flower. Pinks and Carnations have also 

 the title of Gillifiower from smelling like the clove, for which the 

 French name is girqfle. For distinction, therefore, they were called 

 Clove-gilliflowers, and these Stock-gilliflowers. Gerarde adds the 

 names Castle-gilliflower, and Guernsey-violet. 



The Annual, or Ten-weeks' Stock— French, le quarantain; le 

 violet d'ete [summer violet] : Italian, leucoio estivo [summer stock] 

 — grows about two feet high : there are many varieties, white, red, 

 purple, and striped ; and double and single varieties of each of these 

 colours. It grows naturally on the coast in the South of Europe. 

 By means of a hot-bed they may be raised earlier, but without that 

 help the best season for sowing them is in March and April, and 

 indeed in May also ; if they are taken in when the weather becomes 

 severe, they will continue to flower 3 those planted in May will last 

 to the very end of winter, in the house. A middle-sized pot will 

 contain three or four. To this class there is the valuable additions 

 of the German varieties, requiring similar treatment. 



The broad-leaved Shrubby-stock is a native of the island of 

 Madeira ; it blossoms from March to May : when the flowers first 

 open, they are white, sometimes inclining to yellow ; in a few days 

 they become purple ; hence this species has been termed mutabilis, 

 or changeable. This is of quick growth, and may be increased by 

 cuttings, taken as soon as the plant has done flowering : they should 

 be housed in the winter. 



Some persons increase the Queen's-stock in the same manner, 

 planting the cuttings in March or April in pots three or four inches 

 wide; in the middle of May they remove them into pots five or six 

 inches diameter, and in July or August into full-sized ones, that is. 

 eight or ten inches ; but though these cuttings will generally root, 

 they do not make such handsome plants as those raised from seed : it 



