144 
I.ANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
been so completely changed by the art of the 
florist, that what was, in Queen Elizabeth’s 
time, but one degree removed from a small 
mountain or sea-side flower, is now become 
almost a shrub in size, whose branches are 
covered with blossoms little inferior in dimen¬ 
sion to the rose, and so thickly set as to form a 
mass of beauty not surpassed by any of the 
exotics which the other quarters of the glohe 
have poured into our gardens. Phillips men¬ 
tions a Stock grown at Notting Hill, near Bays- 
water, which measured eleven feet nine inches 
in circumference, in May, 1822. 
Stocks are produced of several colours, hoth 
double and single red, white, purple, and spec¬ 
kled. Of these the bright red or carmine Stock 
must ever remain the favourite variety. The 
principal branches of this fragrant family are 
the Ten-week Stock, so named from flowering 
in about ten weeks after it is sown ; and the 
Brompton, which does not blossom till about 
twelve months after sowing, and was first culti¬ 
vated in the neighbourhood of Brompton. Phil¬ 
lips gives an amusing account of the beneficial 
effect which the sight and name of this flower 
