HISTORY AND EVOLUTION n 



and grateful acknowledgment is paid to the Reverend 

 Father for the seeds received. 



Rivini, whose " Introductio Generalis " (Lipsiae, 

 1690-99) is mentioned by Ruppii as the authority 

 for the name, figures Lathyrus siliquis hirsutis, A. 

 Annual, which no doubt is intended for a plant of the 

 Sweet Pea. 



Mr Dicks has been able to photograph what is 

 probably the oldest specimen of the Sweet Pea in 

 existence, dating in all probability from about the 

 year 1700. This privilege was allowed by the courtesy 

 of Dr A. B. Rendle, M.A., of the British Museum 

 Department of Botany. The photograph was taken 

 of a dried specimen of buds, flowers and leaves preserved 

 in Leonard Plukenet's Herbarium, which forms part 

 of the Hans Sloane Collection in the Natural History 

 Museum, South Kensington. 



The specimens of this Sweet Pea, illustrated herein, 

 some have imagined, were sent to Plukenet by Cupani, 

 but there is some doubt about this owing to the excellent 

 state of preservation in which they are found to-day. 

 It will be remembered that Cupani sent some seed to Dr 

 Uvedale, at Enfield, and as there is little doubt Plukenet 

 was known to the latter, the plant of which the illustra- 

 tion is a portion, is probably the result of seed supplied 

 by Dr Uvedale. An inspection of the illustration will 

 show how accurately the descriptive name, originally 

 given, describes the plant Lathyrus distoplatyphyllos 

 pedunculis bifloris, etc., etc. Linnaeus, in the early 

 eighteenth century, in his "Systema Plantarum Europae," 

 describes the plant. Under Lathyrus pedunculis, section 

 bifloris, we find Lathyrus odoratus : 



"a. Lathyrus Sicu/us, Rupp. len. 210, Lathyrus disto- 

 platyphyllus, Comm. hort., 2, p. 219. 



"b. Lathyrus Zey/anicus, odorato flore amosno ex albo et 

 rubro vario, Burm., Zeyl. 138 Knip. Cent. IV. N. 37. 



