MARTYNIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. MATTHIOLA. 



tains and cool parts of South America, 

 the flowers not showy, but the berries 

 pretty. One kind, M. setosus, is best 

 suited for the rock garden in dry soil. 



MARTYNIA. M. lutea is a pretty 

 Brazilian annual, about i feet high, 

 with large roundish leaves and hand- 

 some yellow flowers in clusters, useful 

 for beds, groups, and borders. It re- 

 quires a light, rich, cool soil, a warm 

 place, and frequent watering in sum- 

 mer. M. fragrans, another species, has 

 sweet - scented flowers, and, under 

 similar conditions, thrives in the open 

 air in summer. It is best in rich 

 borders or among groups or beds of 

 curious or distinct plants. Seed. 



MATRICARIA (Mayweed). Weeds, 

 excepting the double variety of M. 

 inodora, which is a pretty plant with 

 feathery foliage somewhat like Fennel, 

 and with large white flowers, perfectly 

 double. It is creeping, requires much 

 space, and pegged down forms a dense 

 mass which has a pretty effect in 

 autumn. It is hardy, and perennial on 

 most soils, and is easily propagated 

 by cuttings or division in autumn or 

 spring. 



MATTHIOLA (Stock) .Annual or 

 perennial herbs, sometimes inhabiting 

 sea cliffs. From a few wild kinds have 

 been obtained the numerous varieties 

 of the garden Stocks, which have so 

 long been among the best of our open- 

 air flowers. The principal of these 

 species are M. incana, M. annua, and 

 M. sinuata. M. incana grows wild on 

 cliffs in the Isle of Wight, and is the 

 origin of the Biennial, or Brompton 

 and Queen Stocks ; M. annua has 

 yielded the Ten-week Stocks, and M. 

 sinuata the others. These three 

 primary divisions the Ten-week, 

 Intermediate, and Biennials require 

 each different treatment, and Stocks 

 are so easily grown, so fragrant and 

 handsome, that they will ever deserve 

 care in our gardens. 



Ten-week Stocks, if sown in spring, 

 will flower continuously during the 

 summer and autumn. The finest strain 

 is the large flowering Pyramidal Ten- 

 week, vigorous plants, each branching 

 freely, bearing a huge main spike of 

 double flowers and numerous branching 

 spikes in succession. A bed of these 

 Stocks should be grown if cut flowers 

 are in request during the summer. 

 The seed may be sown at any time 

 from the middle of March onward, but 

 it is always well to get Stocks from 



seed early. The seed can be sown 

 thinly in pans or shallow boxes, in a 

 gentle heat, and as soon as the plants 

 can be handled without injury, they 

 should be transplanted to other pans 

 or boxes and grown on quickly, care 

 being taken not to draw them so as 

 to make them lanky. There are 

 various places in most gardens where 

 a bed or patches of Stocks might be 

 grown with advantage, and, given 

 good rich soil, they will amply reward 

 the grower. The German growers 

 have a formidable list of kinds, many 

 of which are more curious than showy. 

 There are, however, sufficient good 

 colours among them, such as crimson, 

 rose, purple, violet, and white, to yield 

 distinct hues. There is a strain of 

 English - selected Stocks, known as 

 Pyramidal, which are of tall growth, 

 and remarkable for their large pyra- 

 mids of flowers, and there is a very 

 distinct type known as Wallflower- 

 leaved, which was introduced many 

 years ago from the Grecian Archi- 

 pelago, and which has shining deep- 

 green leaves, not unlike a Wallflower. 

 In all other respects the type is like 

 the ordinary German Stock. One of 

 the finest varieties of this type, and 

 one of the most beautiful Stocks in 

 cultivation, is known as Mauve Beauty. 

 It has huge heads of pale, lustrous, 

 mauve-coloured flowers. The culture 

 for the Ten-week Stock will answer 

 for this. The autumn-flowering strain 

 is very desirable, as the plants succeed 

 the German varieties, and so prolong 

 the season. 



Intermediate Stocks may be sown 

 either in July or August, to stand the 

 winter and flower early in the spring, 

 or in March, to flower in the following 

 autumn. The strain is dwarf and 

 bushy, and very free-blooming, and 

 the varieties may be said to be confined 

 to scarlet, purple, and white. There 

 is a strain grown in Scotland under the 

 name of the East Lothian Intermediate 

 Stock, and much used there for beds 

 and borders, the climate exactly suiting 

 it for late summer blooming. It is 

 sown in the usual way about the end 

 of March, planted out at the end of 

 May when 3 or 4 inches high, and 

 blooms finely through August and 

 September, and even later, as the 

 numerous side shoots give spikes of 

 flowers. Thus, by using the autumn- 

 sown Intermediate Stocks for early 

 blooming, the ordinary large flowering 

 German Ten-week Stock for summer 



