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HORTICULTURE 



July 29, 1911 



maj conclude thai the New Painted 

 Lady, a rose-colored varh tj . was sum. 

 times called scarlet. 



The first ol the striped varieties was 

 offered in 1837 and since thai 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, tor we have crimson stripes, e. 

 g., America; red and rose stripes on 

 white— Aurora; red and rose stripes on 

 primrose — Jessie Cuthbertsoh; mauve 

 stripes — Gaiety; blue stripes — Prince 

 Olaf, and Mester maroon-flaked like 

 Senator. The American growers have 

 introduced the majority of the best 

 varieties uf this group among which 

 are America, Aurora, Columbia, Day- 

 break, Gray Friar, Juanita, Pink Friar, 

 Ramona and Wawona. Many of these 

 are now procurable in the waved form. 



The variety Blue Edged, the probable 

 forerunner of the picotee forms, ap- 

 peared in 18G0. This was a white va- 

 riety with a well-defined blue edge, a 

 probable hybrid between L. Magcllani- 

 cus and a white variety of L. odoratus. 

 The variety, at all events, was the 

 first to exhibit a distinct blue color 

 among sweet peas. Later it was known 

 as Blue Hybrid, under which it won 

 an award from the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society. Sutton & Sons sent out 

 Butterfly in 1878, which somewhat re- 

 iled Blue Edged. The so-called 

 "blues" that followed wire Invincible 

 Blue, Madame Cat licit or Imperial Blue, 

 and Captain of the Blues, all of which 

 had considerable red in the standard. 

 It was not until 1899 that a good blue, 

 in Navy Blue (Lord Nelson), ap- 

 peared. 



The first of the soft pink varieties 

 was ('town Princess of Prussia, 1868-9. 

 Isa Ke^ford, Peach Blossom, and Love- 

 ly are the improved varieties of this 

 color. 



The efforts of the breeders of sweet 

 peas have not all been directed toward 

 the development of new shades of col- 

 or. The form of the flower has also 

 received attention. The earliest repre- 

 sentations of sweet pea flowers show a 

 loose, irregular bloom, with the edges 

 of the standard turned back, i. e., re- 

 flexed. Often, if not always, the stand- 

 ard had the notch in the apex and fre- 

 quently in the margin. The standard, 

 which is the principal part of the 

 flower, has been improved in sub- 

 stance and the notches have been 

 eliminated. The old type had a nar- 

 row base, and with the improvement 

 noted has come a "filling out" of the 

 lower edges of the standard so that the 

 outline approaches a circle. 



In their efforts to secure varieties of 

 the best expanded or open form many 

 beautiful hooded varieties were origi- 

 nated. While this form was con- 

 demned as inartistic by many sweet 

 pea specialists, it nevertheless secured 

 a permanent place. Prima Donna, 

 Lovely and Countess of Radnor are of 

 this form. 



When many had reached the con- 

 clusion that no further advances in 

 either size or form were to be expected 

 and that the efforts of future breeders 



would be directed toward securing new 

 colors and more Bowers per stem, Na 

 imv demonstrated that she had other 

 surprises In stun-. 



In I :m 1 1 tin C(, unless Spencer varie- 

 ty was exhibited and caused quite ;i 

 sensation. The National Sweet Pea 

 Society awarded it the highest honors. 

 This varii n was distinct from all 



preceding introductions because the 



standard and wings waved. The flow- 

 ers were veiy large and borne in 

 fours on stunt stems. It was intro- 

 duced in 1904. 



The parentage of this variety has 

 been given as (Lovely x Triumph 

 1898) x Prima Donna 1899. However, 

 there appeared in 1905 a variety named 

 Gladys Unwin which was the same 

 color, but smaller and less waved 

 than Countess Spencer, which was a 

 selection from Prima Donna without 

 known crossing being effected. These 

 varieties, however, were forerunners of 

 the new type which revolutionized 

 sweet pea culture in England and has 

 revived and quickened the interest in 

 America. 



Pollination. 

 We have previously noted that the 

 pistil and stamens are enclosed in the 

 keel formed by the partial coalescing 

 of the two lower petals. A very 

 slight pressure upon the base of the 

 keel will cause the pistil to suddenly 

 appear in the tip of the keel. The stig- 

 matic surface is usually covered with 

 pollen, and at the same time the sta- 

 mens appear to view. If the pressure 

 is released these organs disappear as 

 suddenly from view. 



Those who are looking for flower 

 adaptations for the promotion of 

 cross-fertilization would say at once 

 that here we have a mechanism which 

 is operated by the weight of a bee 

 alighting on the keel, and the pistil 

 and stamens rise up striking it upon 

 the body, receiving and giving pol- 

 len. Thus as the insect visits flower 

 after flower, natural cross-fertiliza- 

 tion is carried on. 



This, however, is not the case. In 

 the first place, if we examine flowers 

 in the bud stage, we find the pollen 

 ripe. The position and condition of 

 the stigma changes, for before the 

 maturation of the pollen, the stigma is 

 below the anthers. A day or two 

 later the stigma has risen to a posi- 

 tion among the anthers and is viscid 

 enough to hold the pollen grains. 



In another day or two it has grown 

 beyond the anthers. Self-fertilization 

 has taken place and the development 

 of the legume begun. This process has 

 taken place before the flower is fully 

 open. Sometime later the pistil is 

 pushed out of the protecting keel by 

 the developing pod. 



Such is the normal fertilization of 

 sweet peas, as observed upon examina- 

 tion of the flowers. Attention has 

 been called to the fact that the sweet 

 pea stood practically for one hundred 

 and fifty years, and the question asked 

 how it can be reconciled with natural 

 cross-fertilization. 



During the writer's experience in 

 the field last season for three months 

 studying varieties and recording ob- 

 servations, not a single instance oc- 

 curred of a bee alighting upon the keel 

 of the flower, nor were any observed 

 crawling between the wings. All the 

 bees observed visiting the flowers, 

 alighted on the outside of the wings, 



and in practically every case, thrust 

 the proboscis down between the right 

 wing and the standard. In this con- 

 nection it may be mentioned that the 

 bees did not show a preference for 

 any particular color, but flew from row 

 to row and color-section to color- 

 section. 



Mr. T. H. Dipnall has observed that 

 bees attack sweel pea flowers. The 

 bee (a yellow and white banded 

 species) alighted on the calyx, crawled 

 around to a certain position, and cut 

 a hole through the calyx so that it 

 could thrust its proboscis through and 

 suck the nectar at the base of the pod. 

 The reason is not clear why the in- 

 sect prefers one side of the flower 

 since the structure is similar on each 

 side. 



It is to be remembered in this dis- 

 cussion that sweet peas grown under 

 glass in winter are not visited by bees, 

 but every flower in sunny weather 

 will set seed if the blooms are not 

 kept cut. 



Since the introduction of the waved 

 type there has been much discussion 

 about the difficulty in fixing varieties 

 and the reasons for it. Some growers, 

 having secured what was to all in- 

 dications a fixed stock, discovered after 

 sending it out, that it was not fixed. 

 Some growers thought it only occurred 

 when the novelty was sent to Cali- 

 fornia to work up a large stock of 

 seed, or after it had passed into the 

 hands of the California growers. One 

 of the theories advanced to explain 

 this was that some insect in California 

 was responsible for some cross-pollin- 

 ation of flowers. In our own trials 

 this past season no differences were 

 observed between English or American 

 grown stock since we had seeds of 

 novelties direct from the originators 

 and our varieties were from the in- 

 troducers. Others say that bees visit 

 the flowers and they believe that cross- 

 ing takes place in the waved type 

 which it is maintained does not pro- 

 duce normal flowers in that the pistil 

 sometimes projects beyond the keel. 



It appears that if this view is cor- 

 rect the poor seeding of the waved 

 type would not occur or at least that 

 the worse the fault of the flowers the 

 greater the crop of seed. Thus the 

 varieties which seeded freely would be- 

 come cheap and drive out the others. 

 The writer thinks that the results ob- 

 tained by the seed growers contradict 

 the theory. It appears that the poor 

 setting of seed may be due to the fact 

 that the pistil may grow out beyond 

 the anthers before the latter are ma- 

 ture and thus fertilization be pre- 

 vented by irregular development of 

 the parts. Otherwise the pollen may 

 be impotent in some varieties, but this 

 does not occur so far as the writer 

 has studied the reports of the sweet 

 pea breeders. The writer did not ob- 

 serve any pistils showing the defect 

 mentioned, but as our season was very 

 dry our plants did not make an excep- 

 tional growth which would be likely 

 to express itself in abnormal flowers. 

 However, it was observed that some 

 varieties seeded more freely than 

 others. We have planted most of the 

 varieties this year from seeds saved In 

 1910, and knowing those which were 

 fixed last year as well as those with 

 rogues of certain colors we think that 

 some light may come upon this mat- 

 ter of cross-fertilization, if any, in the 

 sweet pea. 



