506 



THE DICTIONARY OF GARDENING, 



Stipules continued. 



detected. They are very constantly present in certain 

 classes of plants ; hence, their presence and their nature 

 afford important characters in the definition of many 

 tural orders. In many orders, they are not constantly 

 et with, and in many others do not occur at all. 



affo 

 na 1 



FIG. 511. FLOWER-HEAD AND LEAF OF MIMOSA PUDICA, showing 

 Stipules metamorphosed into Spines. 



Occasionally, e.g., Mimosa (see Fig. 541), they are meta- 

 morphosed into spines. 



STIRPS. A race, or permanent variety ; e.g., the 

 Red Cabbage. 



STITCH-WORT, or STITCH GRASS. See Stel- 

 laria. 



STIZOLOBIUM. A synonym of Mucuna (which 



STOBJEA. Included under Perkheya. 



STOCK. The portion of a stem to which a graft is 

 applied; a candex, rhizome, or root-like base of a stem, 

 from which roots proceed ; the term is also used to denote 



STOCK, CAFE. A common name for Helioph.Ua 



(which see). 



STOCKS (Mathiola). Stocks are well-known and 

 very popular plants with every class of cultivators, 

 because of their beauty for flowering in pots and in 

 the open border, and of the sweet perfume which their 

 flowers emit. There are several distinct classes or types, 

 all of which have been greatly improved, in course of 

 time, by florists and seedsmen in this country and on the 

 Continent. The different types may readily be divided 

 into Summer and Winter Stocks, the former embracing 

 the whole of the Ten-weeks varieties, and the latter the 

 Brompton, East Lothian, and Intermediate types. 



The greater portion of the Ten-week Stock seed is 

 imported annually from the Continent, in spring. It 

 is well to divide the supply, and sow a part towards the 

 end of March, and the rest during April ; the least heat 

 from fermenting material is of great help in assisting 

 and hastening germination. So soon as the seedlings 

 appear above ground, plenty of air must be given during 

 favourable weather, and water should be carefully applied, 

 as damping and mildew generally prove very destructive 

 sources of evil. If either commence an attack, the best 

 thing is to prick off all the uninjured plants, about Sin. 

 apart, in new soil. Advantage should be taken to 

 transfer Stocks from a frame into the open border during 

 showery weather; it cannot be done very success- 

 fully at any other time, unless the plants have been 



Stocks continued. 



prepared in small pots. The soil for Stocks can scarcely be 

 too rich ; it should, therefore, be well dug and manured ; 

 and a top-dressing of leaf mould or short manure is also 

 of great benefit in affording nourishment, and pre- 

 venting evaporation during dry weather. Summer Stocks 

 are not generally grown in pots ; they form good beds 

 outside, when the plants succeed, and their flowers are 

 excellent for cutting. 



Of Winter Stocks, the most extensively cultivated are 

 the Intermediate and the East Lothian Intermediate ; 

 the latter succeeds well in Scotland. The Brompton 

 Stocks are very vigorous; they flower about May and 

 June, and the seed should be sown nearly a year in 

 advance, or not later than the early part of July. It 

 is always safer to preserve a quantity of plants in cold 

 frames during winter, than to place them outside; they 

 usually suffer more from excessive moisture than from 

 cold. Stocks intended for flowering in pots, should be 

 inserted singly, in small thumbs, early in autumn, and 

 plunged in ashes, in a cold frame. When sufficiently 

 established, and in need of more space, they should be 

 transferred into Sin. pots ; this is generally done late 

 in autumn, or early in the following spring,' when 

 the double and single-flowered plants can be distin- 

 I guished from each other. The Intermediate and East 

 i Lothian varieties should be selected for cultivating in 

 I pots in preference to the Brompton ; they have a branch- 

 ing yet compact habit, and flower profusely. The soil 

 used for potting should be of a loamy description, 

 with nearly one-fourth of sifted old mortar intermixed. 

 When the plants are growing, plenty of water is re- 

 quisite, and manure water is of great help when the 

 flower-buds are developing. Stocks kept in frames 

 through winter, for planting into outside borders, should 

 be transferred to their permanent quarters during March, 

 or as soon afterwards as the weather is considered 

 favourable for their well-being. 



Saving Seed for Producing Double Flowers. The fol- 

 lowing remarks are extracted from the appendix to Dr. M. 

 T. Masters' classical work, " Vegetable Teratology," pub- 

 lished by the Bay Society in 1869. The reader is also 

 referred to a leading article in the " Gardeners' Chronicle," 

 1866, p. 74, and to a separate work by Mons. E. Chate, 

 "Trait^ des Girofle"es." The last-named author observes 

 that the gardeners of Erfurt " have, for a long time, to a 

 certain extent, monopolised the sale of seeds of these 

 plants. To obtain these seeds, the Erfurt gardeners cul- 

 tivate the flowers in pots, and place them on shelves, 

 in large greenhouses, giving them only suflicient water 

 to prevent them from dying. So cultivated, the plants 

 become weakened, the pods shortened, and the seeds less 

 numerous, and better ripened ; and these seeds give from 

 sixty to seventy per cent, of double flowers. The seeds 

 from these plants are said to be mostly of an abnormal 

 shape, which is so striking that experienced cultivators 

 are able to separate those which would furnish double 

 flowers from those which would produce single ones." 



M. Chate's method, which he calls the French one, gives 

 still greater results, viz. : eighty per cent, of double flowers, 

 and these produced by very simple means. " When my 

 seeds," he observes, "have been chosen with care, I plant 

 them, in the month of April, in good dry mould, in a posi- 

 tion exposed to the morning sun, this position being the 

 most favourable. At the time of flowering, I nip off some 

 of the flowering branches, and leave only ten or twelve 

 pods on the secondary branches, taking care to remove all 

 the small weak branches which shoot at this time. I 

 leave none but the principal and secondary branches to 

 bear the pods. All the sap is employed in nourishing the 

 seeds thus borne, which give a result of eighty per cent, of 

 double flowers. The pods, under this management, are 

 thicker, and their maturation is more perfect. '' At the time 

 of extracting the seeds, the upper portion of the pod is 



