THE NEW SWEET PEAS FOR /S<p7. 



color verged on rose pink, which rather 

 took away from the beauty of the 

 flower. 



Prima Doii/ia, next to Cotiuette the 

 best of the set, a very beautiful shade of 

 shell pink, sometimes flushed lavender, 

 standard large and shghtly hooded, 

 wings very large and expanded, stalks 

 long, three to foui flowers, a more uni- 

 form color than Lovely. 



Royal Rose — Another pink, while of 

 large size is not an attractive shade, a 

 rose pink with darker veining. 



Mars — Though not perfect is upon 

 the whole the best red to date, being 

 much larger and finer form than Firefly, 

 the best of the old reds. It is rather 

 variable in shape, the standard gener- 

 ally hooded, is sometimes expanded, its 

 weak point is that the color, a cherry 

 scarlet, does not hold well with age, 

 turning a dull red before fading. 



Countess of Shrewsbury, should never 

 have been sent out, being anything but 

 attractive either in color or form, stand- 

 ard small and reflexed, and color a dis- 

 agreeable shade of light reddish mauve. 



The only other European novelties in 

 the market were Lorenzs' striped Celes- 

 tial, which did not germinate with me, 

 and Cannell's Sultan, of which a few 

 seeds grew, none of them being true to 

 description. 



What might be called Burpee's '97 set 

 contains one-half of the new American 

 varieties, and by far the best half, con- 

 sisting of Aurora, Maid of Honor, 

 Golden Gate, New -Countess, Creole, 

 Brilliant, Red Riding Hood and New 

 California. 



Aurora — A seedling of Mrs. Joseph 

 Chamberlain, is as large and as fine 

 form (but no better) as that grand old 

 sort, differing from it in being streaked 

 salmon instead of rose pink, a unique 

 color and a decided acquisition, a weak 



germinator, not half of the seeds grow- 

 ing. 



Maid of Honor — A selection from 

 Butterfly, is an attempt to get rid of the 

 objectionable notch at the sides of the 

 standard in that old favorite. It is only 

 a partial success yet, as many of the 

 flowers are the very same shape as 

 Butterfly When true it is a decided 

 advance on that variety, and will take 

 its place, being much more vigorous and 

 a very free bloomer. 



Golden Gate, is evidently also a selec- 

 tion from Butterfly, being much like it in 

 color ; and somewhat of the same shape. 

 The distinguishing feature is the shape 

 of the wing, which instead of envelop- 

 ing the keel, stand straight and erect — 

 like two gate posts — folded at the sides 

 only ; this peculiarity is not constant, as 

 frequently one of the flowers in a spray 

 will have the old type of wing, a strong 

 grower and profuse bloomer. 



New Countess — A selection from 

 Countess of Radnor, no improvement 

 in shape or size over that variety, but a 

 finer color. The hot suns of America 

 have developed an objectionable reddish 

 mauve tint in that good old sort, which 

 it did not possess when originally sent 

 out by Eckford. New Countess is an 

 attempt to get back to the original 

 color, how complete the success. I 

 can not tell from my own experience, as 

 only one seed grew out of thirty planted, 

 the flowers on my lone plant had a 

 slight reddish shade on the standard, 

 though not nearly so much so as in 

 Countess of Radnor. 



Creole — A seedling of Lemon Queeni 

 same size and shape as the parent, but 

 a beautiful shade of pale lavender, a 

 very handsome flower. 



j5/-/7//a///— Said to be a bright scar- 

 let. Is not a scarlet at all, but a 

 peculiar shade of red, might be called a 



421 



