684 Bulletin 320 



color of the flowers. Linnaeus, writing a flora of Ceylon ten years later, 

 did not describe a sweet pea from there. Neither of these botanists 

 visited the island, and none of the later works on the plants of Ceylon, 

 including those of Trimen, mention Lathyrus odoratus as native of that 

 island. . 



The great mass of evidence, therefore, is in favor of Sicily as the original 

 home of the sweet pea. The question arises as to how Burmann could 

 have been misled. May it not have happened that Voss had seeds of 

 the sweet pea which were accidentally mixed or included with the col- 

 lection of Ceylon seeds? The color of the flowers was different from 

 existing varieties, being red and white. That this would naturally be the 

 direction of variation is shown by the fact that the first Cupid was white, 

 while the second variety, Pink Cupid, was red and white. The first of 

 Burpee's bush form was of this color, which is an extremely precocious 

 color. It would appear, since the sweet pea is never found in Ceylon, 

 and also from the fact that Burmann was aware that his plant differed 

 only in color of the flowers from Cupani's plant, that Lathyrus Zeylanicus 

 Birnn. was only a variation from the original form received from Sicily 

 in 1699. 



British horticultural history 



The earliest trade mention of sweet peas, according to Beale,* is found 

 in the catalog of Benjamin Townsend (1724), who subscribes himself 

 late gardener to Lord Middleton. He merely quotes sweet pea seed. 



Robert Fiirber offered seed of the purple variety of sweet pea. 



In " Twelve Months of Flowers " (1730), a set of engravings designed 

 by Peter Casteels from the collection of Robert Furber, gardener at 

 Kensington, and engraved by H. Fletcher, is to be found probably the 

 first colored illustration of the sweet pea. The purple sweet pea is shown 

 in the bouquet for the month of June. The form of the flower is very 

 loose and irregular, with a small reflexed standard and very large wings. 



In Miller's Gardeners Dictionary, first folio edition, 1731, is found the 

 following, referring to the culture of Lathyrus Tingitanus and Lathyrus 

 distoplatyphyllos : 



" The fifth and sixth sorts are annual plants which are propagated only 

 by seeds: these may be sown in March in the place where they are to 

 remain for good; being plants that seldom will grow, if transplanted, 

 except it be done when they are very young. These should be sown near 

 a Pale, Wall, or Espalier, to which they may be trained, or, if sown in 

 the open borders, should have stakes placed by them, to which they should 

 be fastened; otherwise they wiU trail upon the ground and appear very 

 unsightly; which is the only culture these plants require; except the 



♦Gilbert Beale, in Gardening World, 1900, pp. 741, 742, and 765. 



