GARDEN FLOWERS. 249 



M. Craniolaria (white-flowered) ; greenhouse annual ; 18 

 inches; flowers white spotted, in July; South America; 1733. 

 M. diandra (two-stamened) ; greenhouse annual; 18 inches; 

 flowers red, in July; Mexico; 1731. M. fragrans (fragrant); 

 greenhouse, or half-hardy annual ; 2 feet ; flowers rose-purple, in 

 July; Mexico; 1840. M. lutea (yellow); greenhouse annual; 

 18 inches; flowers yellowish, in July ; Brazil; 1824. M.probo- 

 scidea (proboscis-like) ; greenhouse annual ; i foot ; flowers 

 pale-violet, with saffron dots, in July ; Mexico ; 1738. 



MARVEL OF PERU. See MIRABILIS. 



MATHIOLA. Stock. [Cruciferae.] A favorite genus of 

 hardy plants, among the sweetest and gayest of garden flow- 

 ers, of which one familiar species, M. annua, the Ten-weeks 

 Stock, is an annual ; another, M. simplicicaulis, the Brompton, 

 or Giant Stock, is a biennial ; and M. incana, the Queen 

 Stock, is a sub-shrubby kind, though best treated as a bien- 

 nial. The varieties of these, especially of the first, are very 

 numerous, and, as imported from Germany, very fine. Of 

 the ordinary hoary-leaved Ten-weeks, or Annual Stock, there 

 are a score or more different colors, which the German seed- 

 growers save distinct. Of the Ten-weeks Stock having smooth 

 green, or wallflower-like leaves, there are also many varieties 

 of color ; and, besides these, there are variations of habit 

 which have -become perpetuated by careful seed-saving. The 

 biennial Stock, that is, those sown one year to bloom the 

 next, varies as much as the annual, in regard to habit, but 

 not in respect to color. The Brompton and the Queen Stock 

 are well-known distinctions in this class. When once pos- 

 session is obtained of a good strain of Stock, which produces 

 but few single-flowered ones out of a great number, there is 

 not much difficulty in keeping it, for the Stock has a strong 

 disposition 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 



