Culture of the Sweet Pea 685 



cleaning of them from weeds. They produce their flowers in July and 

 their seeds are perfected in August and September. But the best method 

 to have them very strong is, to sow their seeds in August under a warm 

 wall or hedge where they will come up in the autumn and abide the winter 

 very well; and these will begin to flower in May and continue to produce 

 fresh flowers until July or later, according to the heat of the season; and 

 one of these autumnal plants will be as large as four or five of those sown 

 in the spring and produce ten times the number of flowers; and upon 

 these plants you will always have good seeds, when sometimes the other 

 will miscarry; however, it is very proper to sow seeds at two or three 

 different seasons in order to continue their flowers the longer ; for the late- 

 planted ones will continue blowing until the frost prevents them. 



" The sweet-scented sort is the most valuable both for beauty and 

 fragrancy of its flowers. Of this sort there are two other varieties: one 

 of these has pale red flowers, which are called by gardeners Painted Lady 

 peas; the other hath entire white flowers; both these may be allowed a 

 place in the borders of the flower garden for the sake of variety." 



From the preceding it is clear that three varieties were known at least 

 as early as 173 1. In the eighth edition of the Gardeners Dictionary, 1768, 

 the same varieties are again noted. 



James Justice, in the Scots Gardeners' Director (1754), criticised the 

 catalogs of the Dutch seedsmen and nurserymen who were sending their 

 catalogs throughout England. He says, " They are neither rightly named 

 botanically or otherwise," and for illustration proceeds to quote from the 

 " Caalogus van Schoone Bloem-Zaaden te Vinden," by Dirk and Pierre 

 Voorhelm, "Bloemists te Haarlem": "No. 176 Lathyrus odorante flore 

 albo et rubro variegato"; "No. 177 Lathyrus odorante flore purp. et 

 rubro variegato." 



Justice then proceeds as follows: " The first named is the Lathyrus 

 angustifolius flore ex albo et rubro variegato odorato, mentioned by 

 J. Bauhinus, 1650. This is the Painted Lady pea vulgo, a variety seminal 

 of the 177 but not so sweet-smelled. " Regarding No. 177 he says: " This 

 is the Lathyrus distoplatyphyllos of Hort. Cathol., the sweet-scented pea 

 vulgo ; of this kind of pea there is both the piirple and the white flowered 

 forms." 



In the catalog for 1778 of W. Malcolm, seedsman, of Kensington Turn- 

 pike, there were offered white, purple, and Painted Lady sweet peas. 



The Universal Gardener and Botanist of Mawe and Abercrombie, 1778, 

 gives under Lathyrus : " Varieties of, are, purple-flowered sweet peas, white- 

 flowered sweet peas, variegated or Painted Lady sweet-scented pea." 



The first evidence of improvement is noticed in the catalog of John 

 Mason (original founder of the business of Cooper, Taber & Co.), published 



