124 GARDEN FLOWERS. 



variegated hue. The Brompton stock is a 

 variety of this, and was probably improved by 

 the skill of some Brompton florist. The wild 

 flower, from which many botanists consider the 

 garden stock to have been derived, is, indeed, a 

 blossom very inferior in beauty to this, and few 

 would detect, in the small purple flower of our 

 sea-side cliffs, the parent of this beautiful orna- 

 ment of the cultivated ground. The annual, or 

 ten-week stock, is called by the French, la 

 violette d'ete. It is generally about two feet 

 high, with white, red, and variegated varieties, 

 both single and double. It grows on the cliffs 

 of southern Europe, and, like all the species, 

 flourishes best near the sea. 



There are, besides, some cinnamon-coloured 

 stocks, and the night-blowing stock is of a dingy 

 brown. The bright pinkish lilac annual, called 

 Virginian stock, which is planted round the 

 garden bed, is not a species of this plant. It 

 grows wild in the Mediterranean isles, and is 

 called by the French, girofiee ch Malion. Some 

 of our most beautiful stocks are reared from 

 seeds brought from Germany and Russia, and 

 are hence called German or Russian stocks. 



Several species of campanula bloom now 

 from the various pretty little flowers, wdiich, 

 with their blue and white bells, cover the rock- 

 work to the tall jjyi'amidal campanula, or the 

 Canterbury bell, and throatwort. One of the 

 kinds frequently seen in gardens, is the peach- 

 leaved bell-flower, [Campanula persicifolia,) often 

 called paper flower, with blue and Avhite spread- 



