Sweet Peas. 



I. General Sketch of the Sweet Pea. 



The improved sweet peas hold a leading place in the returning 

 tide of the good old flowers. The varieties now number many 

 over a hundred, where but a few years ago they were less than a 

 dozen. The sweet pea has long been a favorite, for it has beauty 

 of form and color, attractive habit, and delightful perfume; it 

 needs only a variety of colors, shapes, sizes and seasons to perfect 

 it for the amateur's and florist's use, and all this has now been added 

 to it. The sweet pea is one of those fortunate flowers which can 

 never be developed into stiffness and formality, for the shape is 

 irregular and the plant is a free and random grower. However 

 much the desire for oddity or formalism may conduce to the popu- 

 larizing of other flowers, it can effect little with the sweet pea. It 

 is unique and wayward, and if it once loses its old-time freedom, it 

 is no longer a sweet pea. 



Yet there is a tendency to develop the sweet pea beyond its 

 characteristic limits of simplicity and daintiness. The most ap- 

 parent fault with some of the novelties, if one may judge from the 

 pictures of them, is their arrogant size ; but, fortunately, I have 

 never seen such peas in the garden. If I were really assured that 

 1 should raise such amazing flowers as I see in the catalogues, I 

 should certainly never buy the seed of them. I should still give 

 my affections to the modest Fainted Lady, whose presence still 

 graces the 'unconventional old gardens. But I do not desire to 

 complain of the trade cuts, for I know what a powerful magnifier 

 a silver dollar is when it is placed behind a flower; and I simply 

 " make allowances," and buy. If I get the color and the shape and 

 the texture, the degree of bigness is a trifling matter. Another 

 heresy in sweet peas is the desire for a double flower. The form of 

 the pea flower is its peculiar beauty. The broad trim standard is 

 the most perfect surface for the display of color, and an effective 

 shield and foil for the contrasting pigments of the wings and keel. 



