OF THE SWEET PEA 



hibitors, as is evidenced in every town and village in 

 the United Kingdom. The enthusiasm of its devotees 

 knows no bounds, in consequence of which the flower 

 has come to be extensively cultivated and universally 

 admired. 



Interest in the Sweet Pea is not confined exclusively 

 to one section of the community. Although the gardens 

 of the rich are enhanced in beauty by its inclusion 

 therein, and enriched by the wealth of its display of 

 charming blossoms, there are others whose love of the 

 Sweet Pea is of the warmest description and whose 

 devotion to its culture is second to none. Numberless 

 workers in our towns and cities, many of whom toil from 

 early morning until quite late in the evening, find their 

 chief recreation in the cultivation of this beautiful flower. 

 Their garden, or that patch of it devoted to the Sweet 

 Peas, is a centre of unfailing interest to them, and the 

 blossoms gathered each day, are not infrequently set up 

 in friendly rivalry with those of others similarly circum- 

 stanced. The humble toiler of the fields too, in later 

 years, has made his life less dreary and monotonous by 

 tending the Sweet Peas in his cottage garden on his 

 return home when the labours of the day have ceased, 

 and how sweet and helpful have been their influence 

 in the surroundings of his home ! This is no fancy 

 dream of a distorted mind, but an actual everyday 

 experience in the life of many who participate in the 

 joys of the flower lover. 



All those who worship at the shrine of the Sweet Pea 

 never cease to extol its merits, and almost without excep- 

 tion they acknowledge it to be unrivalled as an annual. 

 The extraordinary development that has taken place in 

 more recent years has made its future progress a 

 matter of absorbing interest. What the future has in 

 store for us it is impossible to foretell, but there is little 

 doubt we are on the eve of further developments, 



