STOCK. 
career what we should call rather short of mois- 
ture. Some persons have been in the habit of 
sowing the spring ten-week stocks broad-cast in 
the bed they are to grow in, and, when they be- 
come large enough, drawing them out to thin 
them to 9 inches or a footapart. The objections 
to this are, that the stocks are not left in even 
rows; for this is next to impossible. Those 
drawn out generally run more double when care- 
fully taken away and planted. The best way is 
to water the bed well first, and in half an hour 
you may draw them out without damaging the 
roots. It has been thought by many that the 
check which stocks get under the transplanting 
system is beneficial in producing the double 
flowers ; but, generally speaking, we think high 
culture induces it. Certain it is, we never saw 
a self-sown stock come double when left to bloom 
in the place in which it came up; and some 
kinds are very apt to come single, and cannot be 
prevented. Biennial kinds of stock should be 
sown in May or June, and as nearly as possible 
that time in the next year they will flower. The 
months mentioned as these in which they bloom, 
supposes them to be sown at the ordinary time 
for biennials, that is, midsummer, or rather later. 
| These are best sown in a good sound border of 
loam and peat, though the soil of a kitchen gar- 
den not fresh dunged will do for them. Here 
they may remain until they have made some 
considerable growth, and from thence taken to 
where they are to bloom, whether this be in beds, 
borders, or pots. They must, if potted, be only 
one in a pot, of the forty-eight size ; and in the 
spring, all that indicate double flowers should be 
transferred to size twenty-four pots, as they will 
grow very much, and the flowers be greatly as- 
sisted by the additional room. But the Giant 
Brompton, and some of the large kinds of bien- 
nial stock, are much too large for pots, and will 
grow, on good ground, three, and occasionally 
four, feet high. They should be planted out time 
enough to establish themselves in the ground 
| before the winter sets in, and are only fit for ex- 
tensive gardens. The biennial stocks are well 
| worth propagating from cuttings, and they pro- 
duce flowers in a much more dwarf state. These 
are taken from the side shoots and come soon 
after the bloom ; indeed, if left on the plant they 
would bloom. When taken for cuttings, they 
should be stripped off with part of the heel, or 
cut very close to the plant, and placed under a 
hand-glass ; but they should always be taken as 
soon as they are large enough to handle well ; 
and if they should indicate bloom before they 
have grown to any size, which they will some- 
times, it must be pinched out as soon as you can 
get hold of it. When they have rooted well, they 
may be planted out the same as seedlings.” 
STOCK. The stem of a living, growing, young 
tree, used for receiving a graft or bud. See the 
articles Grartine and Buppina. 
STOCK. Moveable property possessed in con- 
STOMACH. 343 
nexion with productive industry. The stock of 
a farm is usually classified into living and dead, 
—the former comprising the animals, old and 
young, and the latter comprising the imple- 
ments, manures, and vegetable produce. See the 
article Live Stock. 
STOCK DOVE. See Piezon. 
STOCK FARMER. A farmer whose business 
mainly consists in rearing live stock, and who 
therefore occupies a pastoral farm. See the ar- 
ticles Farm and Farmer, 
STG@BE. A genus of ornamental, Cape-of 
Good-Hope, evergreen undershrubs, of the thistle 
division of the composite order. Four species, 
all about 2 feet high, and blooming in the early 
part of autumn, have been introduced to Bri- 
tain ; and they love a soil of peaty loam, and are 
propagated from cuttings. 
STOKESIA. A beautiful blue-flowered, ever- 
green, herbaceous plant, of the thistle division of 
the composite order. It constitutes a genus of it- 
self, and takes the specific name Cyanea or azure- 
flowered. It is a native of Carolina, and was in- 
troduced to Britain in 1766. It has a height of 
about 2 feet, and blooms in the early part of 
autumn ; and it thrives in any common soil, and 
is propagated by radical division. 
STOLON. A shoot from the side, summit, or 
collar of a root, extending laterally either within 
the soil or upon its surface, and terminating 
either in a tuber or in a young perpendicular 
root. The string which connects a potato tuber 
with the root is a good example of a subter- 
ranean, tuber-ending stolon; and the runner of 
a strawberry-plant is a good example of a sur- 
face, root-ending stolon. 
STOLONIFEROUS PLANT. A ‘plant which 
naturally propagates itself by means of stolons. 
The strawberry-plant and fiorin grass are good 
examples. 
STOMA. See Sromara. 
STOMACH. The first or digesting portion of 
the alimentary canal of an animal. The arrange- 
ment of it into four parts in ruminants, together 
with the manner in which these severally and 
co-operatingly perform its aggregate function, is 
noticed in the article Ruminarion; the first and 
the third parts of it in ruminants are described 
in the articles Rumen and Manypnus; and the 
physiology and offices of it in animals in gene- 
ral are discussed in the article Diausrion. 
The horse’s stomach has peculiarities of size, 
situation, structure, and habit which ought to 
be well understood by all persons who manage 
horses. It is remarkably small in proportion to 
the other parts or general bulk of the body; and 
has a form somewhat similar to the bag of a bag- 
pipe; and is situated behind the diaphragm, 
principally on the left side, with its expellent 
orifice extending across the spine to the right ; 
and being pressed by every motion of the dia- 
phragm, and necessarily offering resistance to 
that motion during all the periods of its disten- 
Fa 
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