7ft The Stock. 



was introduced in 1731 ; but the principal varieties have been 

 originated in England and Germany. The German varieties 

 are particularly beautiful, and the seed saved in that country, 

 from the greater heat of the summers, and the great care be- 

 stowed by the weavers of Saxony, who are the principal 

 growers of it, is very superior to seed saved in England. What 

 are called the Russian and Prussian varieties, are, generally 

 speaking, all grown in Upper Saxony by the weavers, who 

 take as much pleasure in raising and saving the seed of their 

 Stocks, as the Lancashire weavers do in England in growing 

 their pinks and carnations. Home-saved seed can rarely be 

 depended upon, as where several varieties are cultivated to- 

 gether, spurious ones are made by the wind carrying the pollen 

 from one plant to another, and the seed can never be kept true. 

 Regular seed growers preserve only the plants with the best 

 flowers, and throw the others away. To produce the 

 finest flowers, the seed should be sown in August, in a bed of 

 rather light soil, which should be covered with a frame ; or 

 the seed may be sown in pots, four or five in a pot, and placed 

 in a cold frame. (A cold frame is a pit or frame covered with 

 glass, but not heated by manure, or in any other manner.) 

 The plants, when they come up, should be kept dry during the 

 winter, to strengthen them, and in April they should be taken 

 out of their beds, with a ball of earth round their roots, or if in 

 a pot, turned out with the earth entire, and planted in a warm 

 border, in very rich soil. The poor soil in which they were 

 raised will have previously checked their growth ; but plant- 

 ing them in the rich soil after this previous check, will- make 

 them grow luxuriantly, and produce rich spikes of flowers in 

 June. 



" Those persons who wish to have fine Stocks to flower 

 early in the summer, but who have no frame to raise them in, 

 or indeed do not like the trouble of keeping plants during the 

 winter, will find it their best plan to purchase young plants in 

 April or May, and to plant them in rich soil. These autumn- 

 sown plants have, however, the disadvantage of fading very 

 soon, when exposed to the heat of summer. Their fibrous 

 roots wither, and their dark colors become blotched, or blanch- 

 ed by the sun. From this disadvantage spring-sown plants 



