30 
CULTURE OF STOCKS (MATHIOLA). 
when the sun is hot, for the plants would be liable to be damaged by the sun, 
rendering the drops of water hot, and thereby scalding the leaves, which, if it did 
not entirely destroy them, would greatly retard their growth. The best time is 
either very early in the morning, or towards five o'clock in the evening, when the 
sun's rays are oblique. 
4. When the plants are nearly three inches high, they should be thinned out to 
six inches apart in the rows, and afterwards to a foot, taking up every other row ; 
and those plants taken out, should be transplanted carefully into a similar border as 
that prepared for the seed bed, or be planted three or four together in the flower 
borders : the former plan is the best, if it is convenient, because the whole are more 
easily protected through the severity of winter. In either case they must be taken 
up with balls, and be sheltered from the sun, and regularly watered, until they have 
begun to grow again. Those left in the seedling bed will be much finer plants in 
the autumn than the transplanted ones, from the circumstance of having received 
no check in removing, which, from having so small a quantity of fibrous roots, 
prevents their growth for some time. 
5. On the approach of winter, the borders may either be hooped over, and be 
covered with mats in severe cutting weather, or a frame may be set over the plants, 
and the glasses put on to preserve them. If they are left entirely exposed, if the 
plants are not killed, the long leaves will be beat to pieces by the winds, and the 
naked stalks, at the approach of spring, will be very unsightly. Those planted in 
patches in the flower borders may be protected by branches of spruce fir, stuck into 
the ground round them, in the absence of other shelter. 
6. In March, if the weather be^fine, or if not early in April, take them up 
with as large balls as they can be got, and plant them in the situations intended for 
them in the flower borders. In June they will come into bloom, and will more 
than repay for all the care taken of them. 
Culture of the ten-week Stock (M. annua) — is the common annual stock, 
and derives its name of ten-week stock from the circumstance of its coming into 
flower about ten weeks after the seed is sown. The species is a most beautiful one, 
and the varieties are of various colours. 
There are usually four or five seasons for sowing the seeds of annual stocks, viz. 
February, March, April, May, August, and October. 
The soil best suited for these kind of stocks is a mixture of light rich sandy 
loam, taken fresh from the top spit of a pasture, mixed with about one-fourth of 
good rotten horse dung ; sift the dung, and mix it well with the loam after it is 
well broken. If the loam be strong, mix with it a good portion of clear river sand. 
Gather the seed from semi-double flowers, or single plants that grow immediately 
amongst double ones, for seed gathered judiciously under such circumstances often 
produces as many as eight or ten double ones out of a dozen seedlings. Although 
the capability of the double kinds impregnating the single ones has often been 
disputed, yet it will seldom be found that more than one or two out of a dozen 
seedlings will prove double, if the seed-bearers are quite detached from the double 
ones. 
