3244 



STIZOLOBIUM 



STOCKS 



of tropical or semi-tropical regions they require a long 

 season without frost for their successful cultivation. 

 For botanical and other accounts, see Bulletins Nos. 

 141 and 179, Bureau of Plant Industry, United States 

 Department of Agriculture; also Belling on inheri- 

 tance problems in crossing stizolobiums, Report of 

 Florida Experiment Station for 1914. 



The varieties mostly grown for ornament are the 

 Lyon, with flowers in racemes often 3 feet in length; 

 the Chinese, which is very similar to the Lyon but has 

 shorter racemes and blooms much earlier; and varie- 

 ties of S. chlorospermum, Piper & Tracy, with flowers 

 light purple. All of these have pods 5 to 6 inches in 

 length, /-shaped (the ends curved in opposite direc- 

 tions), somewhat brown- or gray-bristly. The most 

 common species in this country is the Florida Speckled, 

 S. Deeringianum, Bort. (Fig. 3697), which has been 

 grown in Florida many years, and has been commonly 

 known as "the vine." This seldom matured much seed 

 north of central Florida, but in recent years several 

 varieties have been developed which mature as far 

 north as Tennessee. The pods of this species are usually 

 less than 3 inches long, and are covered with a black 

 velvety pubescence. All are annual climbers, growing 

 to a great length. The branches are somewhat 

 appressed-hairy, the leaves more or less silky beneath, 

 leaflets ovate, or the lateral ones rhombic-ovate, 

 obtuse but apiculate. 



The cow-itch or cowage, S. pruriens, Medic. (Dolichos 

 pruriens, Linn. D. multiflorus, Hort. Mucuna pruriens, 

 DC.), is apparently the oldest species known, and has 

 become naturalized in the West Indies, but is not 

 grown in the United States. The pods of this species 

 are red or reddish black in color, nearly straight, and 

 4 to 5 inches in length. They are very bristly-hairy, 

 the bristles are easily dislodged by a touch and are 

 extremely irritating to the skin, often producing trouble- 

 some blisters. In the West Indies a decoction of these 

 hairs is often used as a remedy for intestinal worms. 

 Only varieties with a mini- 

 mum growth of these sting- 

 ing hairs are ever cultivated 

 for either ornament or for 

 forage. 



It is an interesting fact 

 that when any two distinct 

 forms, both having relatively 

 smooth pods, are crossed, the 

 first generation always pro- 

 duces forms heavily covered 

 with stinging hairs, although 

 the second generation usu- 



X. : 3*W**SW a ^ snows a large percentage 



V\\ 4*liwlI ^ near ly smooth pods. This 

 \V\. i^llgp^Jpa seems a strong indication 



that S. pruriens is the origi- 

 nal type of the genus. Cattle 

 have been fed 

 successfully on 

 the meal made 

 of the beans 

 ground in the 

 pod, but persons 

 have been made 

 sick by eat- 

 ing the green 

 cooked beans, 

 and chickens 

 have been killed 

 by both raw and 

 cooked beans. 

 Because of its 

 vigorous growth, 

 the velvet bean 



3698. Double stock. Matthiola incana promises well as 

 var. annua. ( x 1 A} a soil-renovator, 



as the cowpea does, although it can not be grown so 

 far north as that plant. It is a good ornamental plant, 

 growing 10 to 20 feet high when supplied with support. 

 The handsome globular beans (Y% to l /2 inch diameter.) 

 have marking which suggests the castor bean. 



S. M. TRACY. 



STOB.5JA (named for D. Stoba^us, a Swedish patron 

 of Linnaeus) . Composite. Somewhat shrubby plants or 

 herbs commonly with aspect of thistles as to the foliage. 



Leaves usually decurrent, dentate, pinnatifid or 

 pinnatisect, lobes dentate and spiny: heads small to 

 large, solitary or somewhat corymbose; rays usually 

 yellow. About 70 species. Now considered to be only a 

 section of the genus Berkheya, and so named below. 



B. membranifolia, Hubb. (Stobsea membranifblia, 

 DC.). St. herbaceous, erect, cobwebby above: Ivs. 

 thin membranaceous, glabrous above, white-tomentose 

 beneath; radical long-petioled, bordered with slender 

 spines, oblong or elliptical, sinuate; cauline more copi- 

 ously woolly beneath, more or less sinuous or pinnatifid, 

 decurrent in ciliate-spinose sinuous st. -wings: heads 

 solitary: fls. pale yellow. July, Aug. S. Afr. 



B. purpftrea, Benth. & Hook. (Stobsea purpiirea, DC.). 

 A half -hardy, probably biennial plant 2-3 ft. high: 

 lower Ivs. about 1 ft. long, irregularly lobed, spiny on 

 the margins, cottony beneath, dark green above: st.- 

 Ivs. smaller, long-decurrent : fl.-heads 3 in. across, pur- 

 ple to white, resembling a single dahlia. G.C. 1872: 

 1261. To be recommended for growing with half- 

 hardy alpines. It can be wintered in a coldframe. Prop, 

 by seed and division. 



B. Radula, Hubb. (Stobsea Rddula, Harv.). St. herba- 

 ceous, erect, angle-furrowed: radical Ivs. obovate-oblong, 

 obtuse, tapering to the base, some somewhat petioled, 

 roughly setose at first then scabrous with hard points 

 above, white-woolly beneath; cauline Ivs. small, narrow- 

 oblong or linear, very spiny, decurrent in long, narrow, 

 very spinose st.-wings: infl. racemose-corymbose; heads 

 short-radiate. S. Afr. j\ TRACY HUBBARD. 



STOCKS. Popular florists' flowers, single and double, 

 white, blush, pink, purple, yellowish, valuable for cut- 

 flowers (Fig. 3698). They are divided into two groups, 

 summer and winter stocks. The former are annuals 

 and therefore bloom the first summer; the latter are 

 biennials and bloom the second year, or, if sown very 

 early, late in the fall or the winter of the first year. 

 Fall or intermediate stocks are between these two 

 groups; they bloom profusely in the autumn. See 

 Matthiola; also Cheiranthus for the closely related wall- 

 flower (also Wallflower). Virginian stock is a very dif- 

 ferent plant and is not a regular florists' flower; it is 

 grown for its small fragrant single fls. ; see Malcomia. 



Florists now frequently grow stocks in benches 

 instead of carrying them through as potted plants. 

 They are in considerable demand for Memorial Day. 

 After the early bedding plants are removed to the 

 frames, the benches are filled with soil and the plants 

 that have been growing in pots since the seed was sown 

 in December are then planted in them. Stocks may 

 also follow chrysanthemums, the seed having been 

 sown in August. 



The seed of the summer stocks, or, as they are com- 

 monly called, "ten-weeks' stocks," is sown from the 

 end of February until April, mostly in a lukewarm hot- 

 bed, which must be sunny and well aired. Good clean 

 garden soil, well mixed with sand and free of manure, is 

 proper soil in which to sow the seed. The seed will ger- 

 minate in six to ten days, the light-seeded sorts germi- 

 nating more quickly than the dark-seeded kinds. Air 

 must be admitted as soon as the seeds have sprouted, 

 very much in warm weather and less when the weather 

 is raw, until finally the sash may be entirely removed 

 during the day. If the seedlings need water it should be 

 given in the morning, so that they are dry at night. If 



