Culture of the Sweet Pea 693 



Miriam Beaver, Marie Corelli, Senator Spencer, and W. T. Hutchins 

 were introduced in 1910 by Messrs. Burpee and Morse. 



The 191 1 introductions include Dainty Spencer, Ethel Roosevelt, Rose 

 de Barri, Purple Prince Spencer, America Spencer, and Emily Eckford 

 Spencer. 



Truly a long list. Among them are some of the finest varieties of 

 sweet peas yet introduced, which indicates that the American growers can 

 equal those of any country in the world. The cupid, or dwarf, pea, the 

 bush and the winter-flowering types, all distinct in habits of growth, were 

 first discovered on this side of the Atlantic. Since the introduction of 

 Countess Spencer many excellent varieties of waved form have been 

 developed, and this work of crossing and selecting is going steadily for- 

 ward. Judging from the record made by the very small number of Ameri- 

 can breeders, what would America accomplish if she had even one half 

 the number of English producers ! 



evolution 



During the first one hundred years of the history of the sweet pea, 

 only three varieties, or colors, were known — purple with blue wings, pale 

 red with white wings (Painted Lady), and white. The black and the 

 scarlet appeared in the last years of the eighteenth century. It is quite 

 probable that the scarlet was very far from what we to-day conceive that 

 a scarlet sweet pea should be. In Martyn's edition of Miller's Garden- 

 ers Dictionary, 1807, we find the white, the Old Painted Lady, the New 

 Painted Lady (the latter with a rose-colored standard and pale rose wings) , 

 the Old Purple, and a variety having a violet keel and wings and a purple 

 standard. Sayers describes the scarlet sweet pea as Lathy rus flore rosea, 

 while the Painted Lady is described as " fleshed " color. From this it 

 may be concluded that the New Painted Lady, a rose-colored variety, was 

 sometimes called scarlet. 



The first of the striped varieties was offered in 1837, and since that 

 date this group has been augmented until the classification now includes 

 Striped and Flaked (red and rose, purple and blue). This classification, 

 however, does not express the real range of color in this group, for we have 

 crimson stripes, as in America; red and rose stripes on white, in Aurora; 

 red and rose stripes on primrose, in Jessie Cuthbertson; mauve stripes, in 

 Gaiety; blue stripes, in Prince Olaf and Hester; maroon-flaked, as in 

 Senator. The American growers have introduced the majority of the 

 best varieties of this group, among which are America, Aurora, Columbia, 

 Daybreak, Grey Friar, Juanita, Pink Friar, Ramona, andWawona. Many 

 of these are now procurable in the waved form. 



