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CULTURE OF STOCKS (MATHIOLA). 
There are more than twenty species of stocks grown by gardeners, besides a 
great number of varieties, all of which are deserving of cultivation. Some are 
greenhouse plants ; others require the shelter of the frame, and are treated as half- 
hardy plants, and the remainder are hardy annuals and biennials. 
The shrubby greenhouse species, as tristis, tortulosa, varia, and odoratissima, 
are of very easy culture. The tristis should be potted in light sandy loam, mixed 
with a little peat, but without any dung. The tortulosa thrives best in a soil com- 
posed chiefly or altogether of peat ; but the varia and odoratissima require a mix- 
ture of sandy peat, light loam, and very rotten dung, in the proportion of equal parts 
of each. None of the greenhouse kinds are remarkable for showy beauty, never- 
theless they well deserve house-room. The odoratissima emits a delightful fragrance 
in the evening, too powerful, however, for a small room 5 for this reason it is generally 
known by the name of the " night-scented stock." 
These species may be readily increased by cuttings, which strike root very freely, 
if planted in pots of light soil in March or April, and the pots plunged in a hot-bed 
frame, or placed under a hand-glass in heat. They will occasionally produce seed, 
which should be sown in spring. 
Of the hardy and half-hardy kinds, those in most repute are the varieties of the 
annual or ten-week stock, and the Brompton and its varieties. 
Culture op the Brompton stock (M. incana) is in high repute, and has 
been for many years. The varieties are purple, white, scarlet, and variegated, often 
growing in a spike of double flowers eighteen inches long, and the whole plant rarely 
exceeding two feet in height. To grow and flower it well the following rules may 
be attended to : — 
1. The best way of propagation is by seeds, and unless some little attention be 
paid to the selection of the seed, double flowers will very rarely be produced. 
Always collect the seeds from such plants as have semi-double flowers, or which 
grow in the immediate neighbourhood or are surrounded by double ones; for although 
double ones have no power to produce seed themselves, and it has been disputed 
whether they can impregnate others, yet it has been always found that plants raised 
from seed gathered in such situations have amongst them a greater number of double 
ones than when the seed-bearing plants grew under different circumstances. 
2. The best time for sowing is the beginning of May. This should be done on 
a border of light sandy soil prepared for the purpose, on an eastern or south-eastern 
aspect ; never on a south aspect, as this would be too hot for them. Of all other 
modes, the best is to sow the seeds in shallow drills, six inches apart, scattering the 
seed very thinly. 
3. Water as often as they require it, but never do this in the middle of the day ! , 
