626 



Bulletin 319 



grown upon benches, admits of closer planting, and from seed sown in 

 the latter part of August blooms may be cut for the holidays, while with 

 the taller varieties no blooms could be cut before February or March." 

 In 1902 the firm sent ovit an earlier strain of this variety under the name 

 " Gould's Extreme Early Earliest of All." 



Mont Blanc was introduced by Ernest 

 Benary, of Erfurt, Germany, in 1900. It 

 is said that this variety came from Emily 

 Henderson. Burpee, in his catalog for 

 1 90 1, says that it is the exact counter- 

 part of Earliest of All except in the color 

 of the flowers, which are white. 



Earliest Sunbeams appeared in 1904 

 and was described as a primrose Mont 

 Blanc, with which it was identical except 

 in color. 



In 1904 Mr. Thomas Gould, of California, 

 the originator of the strains of Earliest of 

 All, found a white sport in a stock of the 

 Reselected Earliest of All, which was iden- 

 tical with Earliest of All in every respect 

 except color. Unlike Mont Blanc, it had 

 a black seed. This variety. Earliest White, 

 was introduced in 1906 by Burpee, who 

 strongly recommended it for forcing. 



Thus we had in 1906 a group of early- 

 flowering varieties represented by Blanche 

 Ferry, Extra Early Blanche Ferry, Earliest 

 of All, Extreme Early Earliest of All, 

 Mont Blanc, Earliest Sunbeams, and 

 Earliest White, which were of distinct 

 habit from the usual garden types and 

 which were sometimes forced under glass. 



These varieties were all descendants of 

 Fig. 173. — Sweet peas grown in pots -^. ^ t^ r i-ia.i --ij 



Blanche l^erry, from which they ongmated 



as seed sports either directly or indirectly. A further significant fact is that 



Blanche Ferry is a descendant of Painted Lady, which is the common name 



of the sweet pea described by Burmann in 1 7 3 7 as a new species from Ceylon. 



The known origin of the winter-flowering type of the Zvolanek and 



Telemly strains indicates their relation to Blanche Ferry, and this is 



confirmed by the fact that Watchung, Florence E. Denzer, and others 



are indistinguishable from varieties named above. 



