1 6 THE BOOK OF THE SWEET PEA 



1873 continued until 1881, when Sweet Peas were 

 simply offered as mixed, and named varieties. 



Reverting to 1860 we find a blue-edged variety was 

 offered by Mr James Carter to which the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society gave a First Class Certificate at a later 

 date. Twenty-three years later (1883) tn * s same variety 

 was first named Blue Hybrid. It was understood to be 

 a true hybrid between the perennial Lord Anson's Blue 

 and the annual white Sweet Pea. It was one of a series 

 of experiments that were made, with the definite object 

 of procuring a real blue-flowered kind, by Colonel 

 Trevor Clarke of Daventry. Not the least interesting 

 fact in this connection is that Butterfly, offered by 

 Messrs Sutton & Sons, in 1880, is practically identical 

 with this variety. 



Invincible Scarlet, for which a First Class Certificate 

 was awarded to Mr Stephen Brown on July nth, 1865, 

 was for many years regarded as a very handsome and 

 beautiful acquisition. Until quite recent years there 

 were many growers who were still loud in their praises 

 of its undoubted worth. It is generally admitted that 

 the parentage of several of the more brilliantlv coloured 

 Sweet Peas of to-day may be ascribed to this one-time 

 popular sort. 



The well-known Erfurt firm of Messrs Haage & 

 Schmidt were responsible for the distribution of Crown 

 Princess of Prussia in 1868-1869, and from the same 

 source in 1873-1874, a lilac variety named Fairy Queen 

 was sent out. The common failing to-day of imagining 

 and claiming superiority for certain new kinds was not 

 unknown at the time the last-mentioned variety was 

 distributed. Fairy Queen was claimed to be superior 

 to Captain Clarke, but later on, the former was omitted 

 from the list of named varieties, and the latter retained 

 possession of the field. 



Violet Queen, offered by the Messrs James Carter in 



