i 4 THE BOOK OF THE SWEET PEA 



a variety seminal of the 177, but not so sweet smelled," 

 and respecting 177 he says, " This is the Lathyrus 

 distoplatyphyllus of Hort. Cathol. : the sweet-scented pea 

 vulgo ; of this kind of pea there is both the purple and 

 white flowered." 



It is most interesting to know that the painted Lady 

 Sweet Pea is the parent of the race in the opinion of 

 Justice. This view was shared by the late Mr Henry 

 Eckford, who in a complete list styled the Painted Lady 

 " the original variety." That this variety was known to 

 botanists before the Sicilian purple there seems no 

 reasonable ground to doubt. Pickering, on the authority 

 of G. C. Sprengel in " Gehimniss der Natur," published 

 in 1793 at Berlin, stated that " Linnaeus received the 

 Sweet Pea from Ceylon, and on this account calls it the 

 Lathyrus odoratus of Ceylon." Strange to relate this 

 plant is not mentioned anywhere in "Flora Zeylanica " 

 by Linnaeus, published in 1747. The omission of this 

 plant from such an important work, is possibly, the 

 reason why other botanists may have drawn the attention 

 of this eminent authority to the fact, for shortly after, in 

 his " Systema Plantarum," we find him adopting the 

 name from the work of Burmann published in 1737. 



The Sweet Pea is indigenous to Sicily and Sardinia, 

 the flowers being purple coloured, while those of Ceylon 

 are rose coloured. Mr Dicks' researches, which appear 

 to have been most thorough, have induced him to support 

 the opinion of Mr G. Sprenger, an eminent authority at 

 Naples. He says, "I am compelled to question the 

 correctness of the position taken up by Justice and 

 Eckford the purple and white varieties are of Sicilian 

 origin, while the Painted Lady and most probably the 

 red may have their origin in Ceylon." 



French botanists do not appear to have done much 

 with the Sweet Peas. The earliest work so far as can 

 be ascertained is entitled " Plantes de la France," 



