HISTORY AND EVOLUTION 21 



to the advent of the Sweet Peas with frilled or waved 

 segments. 



In 1901 Mr Silas Cole, Lord Spencer's able gardener, 

 at Althorp Park, Northampton, exhibited a new Sweet 

 Pea of the description just mentioned. So distinct was 

 it from anything else in cultivation and the quality of 

 so high a character that, the authorities of the National 

 Sweet Pea Society had no alternative but to grant the 

 new variety a First Class Certificate. We remember in 

 1902 being in competition with Mr Cole in the table 

 decoration in which the new Countess Spencer was used 

 for the display, and also have a vivid recollection of the 

 beauty of the flowers, and the immense advantage their 

 fine quality gave to the arrangement. 



Mr Robert Sydenham, of Birmingham who probably 

 has done as much as, or more than, most Sweet Pea 

 specialists in popularising the flower, by cheapening the 

 acquisition of both small and large collections of good 

 quality secured the stock of this handsome sort, most 

 of which, we understand, was sent to California, for 

 seed purposes. Unfortunately the variety was not 

 fixed, in consequence of which, when the resulting 

 seeds were distributed in the year succeeding, variations 

 were abundant. In subsequent years there has been an 

 endeavour to get the variety properly fixed, but with 

 uncertain success. When represented in true form, it 

 is one of the most lovely Sweet Peas imaginable. 



John Ingman was exhibited in 1903 as a new variety 

 of the Countess Spencer type, but after the experience 

 with the original of the type, the greatest caution was 

 observed. At the same time Mr Unwin, exhibited or 

 brought into notice, his beautiful seedling Gladys 

 Unwin, that growers at first were disposed to regard 

 as identical with Countess Spencer. It was different, 

 however, in its form ; the wings being closer than those 

 seen in its rival. Gladys Unwin was put into commerce 



