

SWEET PEAS. 



Fig. 1044.— .Swk.et Pkas. 



n NV observant gardener who has 

 /Ql studied the catalogues for the last 

 Jjli five or six years, will have noticed 

 the great increase in the varieties of 

 Sweet Peas offered for sale. Dealers 

 who listed ten or twelve kinds in 1890, 

 now catalogue seventy or eighty varieties, 

 and every year is adding to the number. 

 No less than twenty new kinds were 

 offered for sale this year for the first 

 time. There is now considerably over 

 one hundred named varieties in the 

 market, and Mr. Eckford — who has 

 originated the majority of the best new 



kinds — has promised several more for 

 next season, which are said to be finer 

 than any heretofore offered. 



Up to ten years ago all varieties were 

 of the one type in form and habit of 

 growth, a tall growing vine climbing by 

 means of tendrils over anything that 

 came in its way in its efforts to get as 

 near the sun as possible, bearing flowers 

 with a broad roundish petal at the back 

 called the standard, two smaller petals 

 called wings which bend forward as if 

 to protect the central portion, formed 

 by two petals joined together, called the 

 keel, inside of which are the essential 

 organs of the flower — the stamens and 

 pistil. The first departure from this type 

 was in the so-called double Sweet Peas, 

 in which the single standard is multi- 

 plied two or three times; these have not 

 proved satisfactory, a very small percent- 

 age of the seeds produced double flow- 

 ers, and there is no increase in the 

 attractiveness of the blossom. 



A great beauty in the sweet pea is the 

 straight smooth standard which sets off 

 so well the varied colors of the wings 

 and keel ; any improvement must come 

 not from multiplying the parts, it is now 

 perfect in shape, but from new combina- 

 tions of colors, more flowers on the 

 stalk, and more substance in the petals. 



Another departure from the type of 

 growth is the much advertised dwarf 

 ■' Cupid," which has signally failed 



