112 BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS 



Gillyflowers. This presently led to confusion, which they endea- 

 voured to remove by using the term Stock Gillyflower for the 

 former and Clove Gillyflower for the latter. One had clear stems 

 or stocks, and the other, which was grassy in growth, had clove 

 perfume hence the distinctive terms. The Gillyflowers referred to 

 in the dialogue between Polixenes and Perdita in the "Winter's 

 Tale" are supposed to be Stocks 



"Pol. Then make your garden rich in Gillyflowers, 



And do not call them bastards. 

 p er I'll not put 



The dibble in earth to set one slip of them." 



Perdita would hardly have spoken so contemptuously if she 

 had lived at the present time and seen the beautiful "Stock 

 Gillyflowers" which we now possess. But is it certain that 

 Shakespeare had Stocks in mind, after all, when he wrote this? 

 It certainly seems so, because in a previous passage he makes 

 Perdita speak of 



"Carnations and streak'd Gillyflowers, 

 Which some call Nature's bastards." 



But if so, he was caught tripping horticulturally, because 

 there could be no call for "dibble" and "slips" in the case of 

 the annual Stock Gillyflower, which would be raised from seed, 

 although they might be fairly applicable to Pinks and Carnations, 

 if propagated by cuttings, as they often were, doubtless. 



The Ten- week or annual Stocks which we possess nowadays 

 give a large percentage of doubles, if the splendid strains of the 

 German florists are bought from reliable seedsmen. A strain 

 composed entirely of singles is tolerable, but a strain which is 

 a mixture of singles and doubles in the proportion of two or three 

 of the former to one of the latter is disappointing and trouble- 

 some. It is difficult to plant it to advantage, because there is a 

 considerable difference in the size of the plants and the duration 

 of the flowers. The grower must expect a certain number of 



