STOCK. 
with black; the edges of its ears and the ex- 
341 
inhabiting high maritime cliffs in the south of 
tremities of its toes have a yellowish white col- | England, blooming from May till November, and 
our; and the other parts of its body exactly 
correspond in both shape and colour to those of 
the weasel. In the most northern parts of Ku- 
rope, it regularly in winter changes the colour of 
all its body except the point of the tail to white, 
and is then called the ermine; and its fur at that 
time is sought after by hunters as a well-known 
and valuable article of commerce. It sometimes 
is found white during winter also in Britain, 
and is then commonly called the white weasel ; 
but its fur in this case is of small value compared 
with that of the foreign ermine, being very infe- 
rior in at once thickness, closeness, and white- 
ness. Pontoppidan says respecting the Norwe- 
gian stoat or ermine, “ It lives among the rocks; 
his skin is white except the tail, which is tipped 
with black. The furs of Norway and Lapland 
preserve their whiteness better than those of 
Russia, which soon acquire a yellowish cast; and 
upon this account the former are in greater re- 
| quest even in Petersburgh. The ermine catches 
mice, like the cat, and when practicable carries 
off his prey. He is peculiarly fond of eggs, and 
when the sea is calm, he swims over to the is- 
lands, which lie near the coast of Norway, where 
there are vast quantities of sea-fowls. It is al- 
leged, that, when the female brings forth on an 
island, she conducts her young to the continent 
upon a piece of wood, piloting it with her snout. 
This animal, although small, kills those of a 
much larger size, as the reindeer and bear. He 
jumps into one of their ears when they are asleep, 
and adheres so fast by his teeth, that the crea- 
tures cannot disengage him. He likewise sur- 
prises eagles and heathcocks, by fixing on them, 
and never quitting them, even when they mount 
in the air, until the loss of blood makes them fall 
down.” 
STOCK,—botanically Mathiola. A genus of 
ornamental plants, of the cruciferous order. Two 
species grow wild in Britain; nearly twenty 
have been introduced from other countries, prin- 
cipally those around the Mediterranean; and 
nearly a dozen more are known. Six or seven 
of the species in Britain are hardy annuals; five 
or six are biennials; and the rest are herbaceous 
evergreens or subshrubby evergreen undershrubs. 
A few have a height of only from 3 to 8 inches; 
and the rest have a height of from 12 to 30 
inches. The petals of two are obovate and pur- 
ple; those of seven are oblong and yellowish pur- 
ple; and those of the rest are obovate, and either 
white, red, scarlet, purple, violet, or various-col- 
oured. One of the indigenous species, the scol- 
lop-leaved stock, Mathiola sinuata, is a violet- 
flowered biennial of about a foot in height, in- 
habiting the sandy sea-coasts of Cornwall and 
Wales, and blooming from May till August; and 
the other, the hoary gilliflower or great sea-stock, 
Mathiola incana, is a purple-flowered, evergreen 
undershrub of from 12 to 25 inches in height, 
comprising three very distinct varieties, with re- 
spectively white, scarlet, and variegated flowers. 
But the chief interest of the genus is concen- 
trated in the well-known stocks or gilliflowers 
or stock-gilliflowers of the flower border. These 
have long been high favourites with all sorts of 
florists, and are fondly cultivated in all sorts of 
flower-gardens, from the humblest to the most 
princely, for the sake of both their beauty and 
their exquisite fragrance. They were originally 
introduced from the South of Europe, but they 
include many varieties, and have been abundantly 
hybridized ; and they comprise three great groups, 
—ten-week stocks, queen stocks, and Bromp- 
ton stocks, which are regarded by some botanists 
as separate species, and by others as broadly 
marked and very permanent varieties. All are 
capable of being brought to flower and killed by 
frost in the same year in which they are sown, 
and so appearing as annuals,—and of not flower- 
ing till the second year, and continuing to live 
and flower during several years, and so appear- 
ing as short-lived perennials ; but the ten-week 
kinds are peculiarly liable to die after one flower- 
ing, and are therefore commonly called annuals,— 
and the other kinds seldom thrive or bloom so well 
after the first flowering as before, and are therefore 
commonly called biennials. All were classed by 
the old botanists with wallflowers; but they are 
readily distinguishable from them by the hoari- 
ness of their leaves, by the comparative succu- 
lence or fieshiness of their stems, by the greater 
compactness or less shrubbiness of their habit, 
and by the greater brilliance and warmer colour 
of their flowers. 
The following are Miller’s descriptions of the 
three principal stocks:—“ The ten weeks’ stock 
rises with a round smooth stalk about a foot 
high, dividing into several branches upward. 
These are garnished with spear-shaped hoary 
leaves, rounded at their ends, and placed without 
order, sometimes being almost opposite, at others 
alternate, and frequently three or four together, 
of unequal sizes. At the ends of the branches 
the flowers are produced in loose spikes, placed 
alternate. The empalement is large, erect, and 
slightly cut into several acute parts at the top. 
The petals are large and heart-shaped, spreading 
open in form of across. The pods are long, cy- 
lindrical, and have a longitudinal furrow on one 
side, which opens in two cells, filled with flat 
roundish seeds, having athin border. It flowers 
in July and August, and the seeds ripen in Oc- 
tober. Of this sort there are the red, the purple, 
the white, and striped, with single flowers, and 
the same colours with double flowers. If the 
seeds are sown at two or three different times, 
the flowers may be continued in succession near 
three months.—The queen’s stock rises with a 
strong stalk, which is almost shrubby, a foot 
high or more, having oblong, spear-shaped, hoary 
