Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/674

* STOA. 578 STOCK. form was the stoa diple, in which a row of columns replaced the dividing wall. The forms of the stoa multiplied; two inner rows of col- umns were often used and additional stories were added. The stoa originated among the Ionian Greeks in Asia Minor, whence they were introduced into Greece. Celebrated examples were the simple Stoa Poikile (many-colored) up(fa the marketplace of Athens, the walls of which were decorated with scenes from the bat- tles of Marathon and CEnoa by Polygnotus; the stoa diple of Xhoricos ; the three-aisled "Basili- ca" of P.Testuni ; and the two-storied stoa of King Attains II. at Athens. Stoas were frequently adorned with statuary and painting. STOAT. The British name for a weasel (q.v.). STOBJE'trS, Joannes (Lat., from Gk. 'laavrns i ^To/Sorot, lOannCs ho Stobaios) . A Greek writer, apparently a native of Stobi, in Macedonia. The date at which he lived is not certain, but was probably about A.D. 500. To him we owe the preservation of a large number of our fragments of over five hundred early Greek poets and prose writers. This excerpt work in four books bore the name Florilegium ('AydoK/ryioii), but in the course of the Middle Ages was divided into two parts, one of which is known as the Eclogce, the other as the Flori- legium. The best critical edition is by Wachsmuth and Hense (Berlin, 1884-94). STOCK (AS. stocc, OHG. stoc. Ger. Stock, post, trunk; probably connected with Skt. tuj, to thrust). In corporation law, the rights or interest which the organizers of a corporation, or persons who contribute to its capital, have in its assets, franchises, management, and profits. The amount fixed by the charter of a corporation as the sum which is to be paid into its treasury for use in its business operations is called the capital stock. The latter term is sometimes inaccurately applied to the actual property owned by a corporation, as the capital stock: of a corporation may not represent its actual assets, even at the time of its organization. The total capital stock of a corporation is divided into shares, which are represented by certificates, and the latter are distributed to subscribers according to the amounts of their respective sub- scriptions. Shares of stock may be made of any value, the par value being fixed by dividing the number of shares issued into the total amount of capital stock. The usual par value is $100, but shares representing other sums, even so small as $1 each, are sometimes issued, espe- cially in industrial enterprises. Many States require stock to be issued at its par value. Treasxiry stock is that which is not allotted to subscribers, but retained by the corporation for the purpose of selling it from time to time to raise funds. Stock may be divided into preferred and com- mon shares. The amount in dividends which the former can receive in each year is usually fixed and certain, and if more is paid as dividend it must be paid on the common stock. Preferred stock may be cumnlatire or non-cumulative. If the former, any deficiencies in dividends in one year must be made up later, before a dividend can be declared on the common. For example, if 7 per cent, cumulative preferred stock is is- sued, and the earnings are only sufficient to pay 5 per cent, on it in a given year, the deficiency of 2 per cent, must be made up later. If such stock were non-cumulative, the preferred stock would only receive 5 per cent, for that year, even though the earnings the next year were sufficient to pay 15 per cent, on the amount of the capital stock, and an 8 per cent, dividend were declared on the common stock. The name of each person to whom a' share of stock is issued is entered upon the books of the corporation. Shares of stock are transferable by assign- ment, and the transferee obtains a right to have his name entered upon the books of the company as a stockholder in the place of his transferrer. However, shares of stock are not negotiable instruments in the strict sense of that term, but they are commonly indorsed in blank and transferred from one person to an- other as if such transfer were protected by the same rules of law. For this reason the courts in the United States generally protect an inno- cent purchaser for value, on the ground of estoppel. The English courts do not go so far in this respect, and the only safe course there is for a purchaser of stock to have the transfer entered on the books of the corporation immediately. Dividends are paid to the record owner of stock irrespective of who holds the certificates. A record owner of stock is called a stockholder. See Cook. Stock and Stockholders (New York, 1887): Dos Passos, The Law of Stock Brokers and Stock Exchanges (New York, 1882) ; also Corporations and authorities there cited. STOCK (so called from its woody stem), GiLLIFLOWER, Or GILLYFLOWER (Matthiola). A genus of about thirty species of herbs or half shrubs of the natural order Cruciferse, natives of the Mediterranean regions. Most of the species are thickly clothed with white or grayish stellate exocK {Mattbiola incana). hairs; the fragrant, generally beautiful flow- ers are in racemes; the pods are cylindrical or compressed. Matthiola incana, indigenous in Southern Europe, is probably the parent of the greater number of the cultivated hoary-leaved kinds known as Brompton stock, etc., while those