HIE STOCK AND WALLFLOWER. 
233 
knowledge, instead of depending on that of 
others, he is a very safe adviser. 
THE STOCK AND WALLFLOWER. 
Steange as it may appear, there is more 
of this plant cultivated than there is of any 
other, mignonette excepted, and yet there is 
less known about it. It is true that the 
growers of tens of thousands in pots, for 
market, and. in gardens, for cut flowers, pro- 
duce them, year after year, in high condition, 
yet none of them can satisfactorily account 
for the changes from single to double, or, 
rather, for the production of double Stocks 
and Wallflowers from the seed of single ones, 
the double ones being purely monstrous flowers, 
without organs of generation, or any indica- 
tion of them. Originally, the Stock and 
Wallflower were considered of the same 
family, and were classed under the botanical 
name of Cheiranthus ; of late years, however, 
in the rage for splitting families, and multiply- 
ing genera, the Stock has been called Mathiola, 
and the Wallflower retains the original name. 
The separation of the Stock from the Wall- 
flower was a Work of modern days, and is 
recognised in the latest published Botanical 
Dictionary, which, however, also recognises 
one of the most vulgar errors of our fore- 
fathers. It was once supposed that, to procure 
seed that would produce double Stocks, it was 
only necessary to grow a single one among 
many double ones ; for they never troubled 
themselves with the fact, that the double ones 
"had neither pistil nor stamens, and therefore 
adopted a supposition, without the least con- 
sideration of its groundlessness. Paxton and 
Lindley, in the Botanical Dictionary, have 
completely adopted the errors of their prede- 
cessors; for the following is their account of 
the Stock: — " This is a genus of old and well- 
known inhabitants of the garden. In order to 
obtain good double Stock -gilliflowers, Bromp- 
ton and Queen Stocks, choice should be made 
of such single flow r ering plants as grow near 
many double ones." Now, we cannot too 
positively deny that the double have anything 
to do with the matter. The Germans have 
been so successful in saving flower-seeds, that 
we have very distinct shades of colour, from 
white to deep red, from white to deep purple, 
and from white to dark slate colour, and it is 
not uncommon for imported sorts of the annual 
Stock alone, to run into forty or fifty distinct 
characters, all tolerably true. The varieties 
or species (so called) mentioned in recent 
works, are as follows : — 
Mathiola acaulis. — Hardy annual, red; 
blooms in June, and imported from Egypt in 
1823. 
31. annuu.-~- Hardy annual, many colours; 
blooms in August ; imported from the south 
of Europe in 1731. 
31. a. alba. — Hardy annual, white ; bloom- 
ing in July, and supposed to be a variety of 
the same. 
31. a. jlore-pleno. — Hardy, red; blooming 
in July ; supposed to be a mere variety of 
the same. 
31. coronopi folia. — Hardy, purple; biennial ; 
blooming in June, and imported from Sicily 
in 1819. 
31. fenestralis. — Hardy purple biennial * 
blooms in July, introduced from Crete in 
1759. 
31. glabrata. — An evergreen frame shrub, 
blooming white in August, of whose intro- 
duction no account is given. 
31. g. fiore pleno. — White and purple ) 
evergreen frame shrub, a double variety of the 
same, blooming in August. 
31. purpurea. — An evergreen frame shrub, 
blooming in August, of whose introduction no 
account is given. 
31. grceca. — A hardy annual, blooming 
white in August, and introduced from the 
south of Europe. 
31. incana. — Hardy evergreen, shrubby 
kind, flowering in August, and indigenous to 
Great Britain. 
31. i. alba. — By a sort of contradiction to 
its name, a purple evergreen; shrubby kind, 
blooming in August; also British. 
31. i. coccinta. — Hardy evergreen, shrubby 
kind, flowering scarlet, or rather crimson 
scarlet, in August; indigenous to this country. 
31. i. multiplex. — A frame evergreen, 
shrubby kind, bearing a variegated flower in 
August ; indigenous to Britain. 
31. livida. — Hardy annual, bearing a livid 
purple flower in July; introduced from Egypt 
in 1820. 
31. longipetala. — Hardy annual, bearing a 
red or yellow flower in June; brought from 
Bagdad in 1818. 
31. odoratissima. — A green-house evergreen 
shrubby kind, from Persia, bearing a blood- 
coloured flower in June; introduced 1795. 
31. o.fragrans. — A green-house evergreen, 
shrubby sort, brought from Crimea in 1823, 
and bearing a blood^coloured flower in June. 
31. oxyceras.— Hardy annual sort, from 
Damascus in 1820, bearing a blood-coloured 
flower in July. 
31. parvijlora. — Hardy annual, brought 
from Morocco in 1 799,flowering purple in July. 
31. sicida. — Hardy biennial, from Sicily in 
1835, bearing a lilac flower in July. 
31. simplicicaulis. — Hardy purple biennial, 
of whose introduction nothing appears to be 
known, flowering in July. 
31. s. alba. — The same in all respects, but a 
white flower. 
