52 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST, 
r April 
taken a new lease of life, and become young 
and vigorous, furnished with young heads on old 
shoulders, thus reversing the old maxim, with 
a confidence added which that does not possess. 
—John Cox, Redleat. 
DOUBLE STOCKS. 
CHATE has treated at some length 
on this interesting subject, in the 
■ Report of the International Congress 
of Botany and Horticulture , held in Paris 
during 1878, from which we select the follow¬ 
ing passages, which bear more or less on the 
causes which result in the production of double 
flowers in the Stock, under the French and 
German modes of treatment, respectively :— 
The Germans, M. Chate observes, who have had 
the monopoly of the production of Stock seeds, cul¬ 
tivate the plants in pots placed on shelves near the 
glass in well ventilated greenhouses; they give them 
only enough water to keep them alive, and pre¬ 
vent the growth of any branches after the first. 
The result of this mode of culture, according to my 
experience, is that the plant bears few seed-pods; 
they are small, and contain but few seeds. The 
seeds ripen equally, but this method has the incon¬ 
venience of beiug expensive and unnatural, although 
it produces good results. 
According to the French method, the seedlings, 
after being wintered in pots in cool, well-aired 
frames, are planted iu the open ground in a dry 
soil during the latter half of March, weather per¬ 
mitting, at the foot of a wall exposed to the morn¬ 
ing sun. At the blooming period, the flower 
spikes are pinched off so as to leave only ten or 
twelve seed-pods on the central, and four or 
five on the lateral racemes, all the other branches 
being carefully cut away. There is no fear of 
the growth of further branches, if they are kept 
dry during the development of the seeds. The 
seeds of the perpetual Stock, which is cultivated in 
Paris under the name Parisian, render by this mode 
of culture 60 to 70 per cent, of plants with double 
flowers. At the time of taking the seeds from the 
pods, this first result may be exceeded by cutting 
off the upper fourth of the spike, by which proceed¬ 
ing the proportion of double-flowered plants is in¬ 
creased to from 80 to 85 per cent. 
I advise persons wishing to cultivate these plants 
to leave, at the time of pricking-out, all the smallest 
plants; the plants with double flowers have much 
longer leaves than those with simple flowers, and 
as it is easy to preserve those which have the 
longest leaves, a large proportion of plants with 
simple flowers will thus be left. 
As to the influence of old seeds on doubling, M. 
Chate has noticed that the plants springing from 
two and three-year-old seeds are the dwarfest; the 
leaves are fewer in number, larger and thicker, and 
the bloom later; the spikes, thicker and shorter, are 
made up of flowers of such fullness that they are 
close and compact, and have the appearance of 
being more double. The colours are brighter and 
clearer than those of the plants springing from the 
seeds of the same year. 
To sum up the different points iu the culture of 
Stocks, it appears that the maturity of the seeds, • 
the concentration of the sap in a certain number of 
seed-pods, and the judicious choice of plants as 
seed-bearers, are the most important means of 
obtaining double varieties in this genus. 
M. Chate, on a subsequent occasion, showed 
plants of the Parisian Stocks, some with double 
and some with single flowei'3, and made the 
following remarks concerning them : — 
The characteristics of the single ones are darker 
green leaves, longer and smoother, the centre is 
well open and cup-shaped, the habit dwarfer, and 
the leaves very thickly set. Those with double 
flowers, on the contrary, have long, downy leaves; 
the small ones in the centre are twisted or rolled 
up, and covered with whitish hairs. These are very 
distinct characteristics, for those whose business it 
is to rogue the Stocks. 
In the two specimens of Parisian Stocks with 
their seed-pods, the first has been pinched in the 
way I have mentioned, the other has been left to 
Nature. Tn the first, which has been pinched, there 
are about 250 or 300 seeds, which will produce 70 to 
75 per cent, of Stocks with double flowers; in the 
second, we may reckon that there are from 1,200 
to 1,500 seeds, which will give 75 to 80 per cent, 
of Stocks with single flowers. Thus we see the 
advantage of the French plan. 
From the use of these different methods, we may 
conclude that the duplication is the direct result of 
excessive health, since the more the sap has been 
concentrated on a small number of seed-pods and 
seeds, the more double flowers are obtained. 
ADIE'S LAWN EDGE-CLIPPER. 
HOSE wbo have any experience in the 
management of lawns will not need 
to be told liow immeasurably great is 
the advantage secured by the modern mowing 
machine over the old plan of scythe-mowing, 
as regards the facility afforded for keeping the 
grass closely cut. The machine is rapid in its 
action, even and efficient in its execution, and 
easy in its working, so that its use leads to 
economy both of time and energy. The rapidity 
and ease with which the lawn mower does its 
work, as contrasted with the slow operation of 
clipping the edges by hand in the ordinary 
way, some time ago suggested to Mr. Patrick 
Adie, of Pall Mall, the idea of actuating the 
common edging shears by simple machinery, 
so as greatly to increase the rapidity with 
which the implement could be worked ; and the 
result, as perfected by sundry modifications and 
the experience gained by successive trials, is 
represented in the implement we now figure. 
To effect the object in view, Mr. Adie has 
taken away the handle usually affixed to the top 
or movable blade, and has substituted a tooth 
and arm to which to attach one end of a 
spring, and has also added a cylindrical roller, 
4 in. wide and 5 in. in diameter, having an 
