SWEET PEA, S5 



SWEET PEA, OR VETCHLING. Lathyrus 

 Oduralus. 



Natural Order PapUioiiacel, or Leguminoscc. A Genus 

 of the Diaddphia Deca/idria Class. 



Here are Sweet Peas on tiptoe for a flight, 

 With wings of gentle flnsh o'er delicate white, 

 And taper lingers catching at all things, 

 To bind them all about Avith tiny rings. 



Keats. 



The Sweet Pea, the emblem of delicate pleasures, 

 was unknown in the British gardens until the first 

 year of the eighteenth century, when it blossomed 

 in the garden of Dr. Uvedale, at Enfield in Essex, 

 who is supposed to have been the first cultivator of 

 this favourite flower in England : it has since spread 

 itself over the whole of Europe, entering every gar- 

 den where the florist is disposed to 



lend a staff to the still gadding Pea. 



Linnaeus tells us that the common dark variety is a 

 native of Sicily, and that the more delicate-coloured 

 kind, which is distinguished by the name of the 

 Painted Lady, is an indigenous plant of Ceylon. 

 These two kinds have lately been blended by the 



