STOCKS 



STORAGE 



3245 



the sun is hot the seedlings must be shaded. If the 

 seed is to be raised from pot-grown plants a good well- 

 manured, sandy garden soil should be used which con- 

 tains an admixture of well-rotted sod or the soil taken 

 from river-bottoms. The pots are about 6 inches high, 

 with a diameter of 7 inches. When they show their 

 fourth leaf the seedlings are planted firmly into these 

 pots with a dibber, pots being well filled with the above 

 soil; care should be taken that the roots are inserted 

 vertically. From six to eight plants are put into such a 

 pot. These pots are then placed on sunny stages, 

 usually protected by tilt -roofs. The development of the 

 plants depends now principally on careful watering, 

 which is done mostly with watering-pots and at the 

 beginning with a fine spray attached to the spout of 

 the pot. After a crust has formed on the top of 

 the soil, the spray is discontinued and the pots are 

 watered with the pipe of the can. This watering is done 

 at night during warm weather and in the morning when 

 the weather is cold. Very little watering is necessary in 

 continuously cloudy or rainy weather. The watering of 

 the stocks is the most particular and important part in 

 the cultivation in pots, for if due care is not exercised a 

 white maggot will make its appearance while the plants 

 are in bud and destroy the roots. The common flea-beetle 

 is another of the enemies of stocks; this often appears 

 in large numbers and eats the leaves of the young 

 plants. Frequent syringing with water is the only 

 remedy found so far against these pests when they 

 infest stocks. After the plants have been in bloom for 

 some tune the double-flowering specimens are cut out 

 and the watering is continued carefully until the seed- 

 pods which form in the single plants show indications 

 of ripening, which is in October. The plants are then 

 pulled and tied in bundles, which are hung up in dry 

 sheds until the middle or the latter part of November 

 and December, in which time the seed fully matures in 

 the pods. Now comes the most important part of seed- 

 saving of stocks. The bundles of plants are taken down, 

 the roots and part of the stems cut off, and the stalks are 

 taken in hand by expert gardeners who sort them for 

 common seed ami also for the seed-stock. The pods 

 indicate by their shape, size, and form whether the 

 seeds contained therein will produce a high percentage of 

 double flowers the following year, and the selection is 

 made with care. The seed that goes on the market 

 can be vastly improved by the removal of "wild" pods, 

 which contain seeds that produce nothing but single 

 flowers. The seeds are removed by hand from the pods, 

 mostly by women and children. CARL CROPP. 



STOKESIA (Jonathan Stokes, M.D., 1755-1831, 

 English botanist). Composite. STOKES' ASTER is one of 

 the choicest and most distinct of American hardy per- 

 ennial herbs, although little planted. 



Heads many-fld.; marginal fls. much larger, deeply 

 5-cut : involucre subglobose ; outer leafy, the inner with 

 foliaceous, pectinately spinulose-ciliate, spreading ap- 

 pendages; receptacle fleshy, flat, and naked: achene 

 3-4-angled, smooth: pappus of 4-5 thread-like, decidu- 

 ous scales. The species is a blue-fld. plant about a foot 

 high which at first glance has points in common with 

 China asters, centaureas, and chicory. The heads are 3 

 or 4 in. across in cult. The marginal row of fls. is com- 

 posed of about 15 ray-like corollas, which have a very 

 short tube at the base and are much broadened at the 

 apex and cut into 5 long, narrow strips. 



The plant is hardy as far north as Rochester, New 

 York, and Boston, Massachusetts. Probably many 

 persons have been deterred from trying it because it 

 is native to South Carolina and Georgia, and because 

 it is considered a greenhouse subject in some standard 

 works on gardening. The fact that it is found wild in 

 wet pine-barrens is also deceptive, for the roots, as Wool- 

 son and Keller testify, will decay if water stands on the 

 soil in winter. Moreover, the plant has been praised by 



Meehan for its drought-resisting qualities. Stokes' 

 aster should be planted in a well-drained sandy loam, 

 not in cold and heavy clay. It blooms from August 

 until hard frost. According to Chapman, the heads of 

 wild specimens are only an inch across, but the size of 

 heads in cultivated plants is stated by many horti- 

 cultural experts to be 3 to 4 inches across. The heads are 



3699 Stokesia laevis. (XX) 



frequently used for cut -flowers. In the wild the heads 

 are few in a cluster or solitary; in cultivation a good 

 branch sometimes bears as many as nine heads. No 

 double form seems to have appeared but a white-flow- 

 ered form is now on the market. 



Isevis, Hill (S. cydnea, L'Her.). Fig. 3699. Much- 

 branched, hardy perennial herb, 1-2 ft. high: branches 

 often purplish, sometimes hairy when young: Ivs. lan- 

 ceolate; radical ones entire, tapering at the base into 

 long, flattened stalks; cauline Ivs. gradually becoming 

 sessile, the uppermost with a few teeth near the base and 

 half-clasping: fls. blue or purplish blue, 3-4 in. across. 

 Aug.-Oct. S. C., Ga., to La. B.M. 4966. Mn. 5, p. 214. 

 A.G.25:117. F.E. 16:650. G.M. 49:563. R.H. 1863:211. 

 Var. alba, Hort., has white fls. Var. praecox, Hort., is 

 a lavender-fld. sort. WILHELM MILLER. 



STONECROP: Sedujn. 



STORAGE and refrigeration of fruits and vegetables. 

 The storage house has become a very important 

 adjunct to fruit-growing. In fact, fruit-growing would 

 not be possible in present-day large-scale practice 

 without storage, or some means to preserve the fruit 

 from deterioration. Without some way to hold fruits 

 in sound condition during the time required to trans- 

 port them from the place of production, the develop- 

 ment of the large fruit industries of the West and South 

 would be impossible. The two most important factors 

 underlying the success of modern fruit-growing are the 

 discovery of methods of controlling insects and dis- 

 eases and the application of refrigeration to the trans- 

 portation and storage of the crops. The time required 

 to transport fruit crops to the centers of consumption 

 varies from a few hours to ten days, and in some cases 

 two or three weeks are required, especially when the 

 fruit is exported to foreign countries. Under these con- 

 ditions, the trip to market really becomes a period 



