On the Cultivation of Brompton and Ten-week Stocks. 287 



Art. II. On the Cultivation of Brompton and Ten-week 

 Stocks, for producing Flowers in the Spring. By the Con- 

 ductors. 



The beauty and fragrance of all the stock tribe, or gilli-flow- 

 ers, as they are often termed, is so well known, that it is un- 

 necessary for us to eulogize them at this time ; though common 

 in every garden, from that of the most humble cottage to that 

 of the grandest palace, yet they lose none of their attractiveness 

 by their general cultivation. 



To blossom stocks in perfection some little care is requisite, 

 especially when wanted to display their flowers in the spring 

 months. They are of that class of plants which throw out few, 

 very few fibrous roots, and are consequently difficult of removal; 

 if the plants are large the operation of transplanting is generally 

 attended with a loss of half or two thirds of them, however so 

 carefully it may be performed ; and, as the common mode of 

 growing them is to sow the seed in the open border, in spring, 

 and remove the plants into pots upon the approach of frost, in 

 the autumn, when they are of large size, a great majority of the 

 plants are annually lost. Double flowers only are desirable; and 

 as the Brompton stocks do not show their blossoms the first 

 season, so as to distinguish them, a large part of the number 

 taken up are generally single ; this, in addition to the loss of the 

 plants, occasions great disappointment, and often, out of some 

 dozens of seedlings, the cultivator has left, in the blooming 

 season, only ten or twelve good plants. 



To obviate these difficulties, the following mode of growing 

 the plants may not be unacceptable ; — perhaps the space which 

 we occupy in this detail might be much better employed in giv- 

 ing the manner of cultivating rare plants, — but as the stock is 

 not yet grown to near that perfection with us as with the English 

 gardeners, we hope we shall be excused for throwing out a few 

 hints on the subject. We commence first with the perennial 

 stocks. 



The Brompton stock (J^fathiola incana). — The Brompton, 

 Queen, and other perennial kinds, with the different varieties, 

 which now amount to upwards of twenty, are all cultivated in 

 nearly the same manner, and these remarks apply equally to 

 each. 



The only way of raising the plants successfully is from seed : 

 we have known them propagated by cuttings, and have so grown 

 them ourselves, but they were weak stunted plants, and not 

 worth having. We would never recommend to the amateur or 

 gardener this mode of procuring his plants, as it will cause much 

 care and labor, without his receiving any reward in return. The 



