Sweet Peas 



great exhibition of Sweet Peas at the Crystal 

 Palace, London. My friend, the late Mr. Richard 

 Dean, and I were largely responsible for that 

 great event, out of which sprang the National 

 Sweet Pea Society of England. 



By the end of the eighteenth century, the 

 following varieties of Sweet Peas were known to 

 be in existence purple, red, white, black, and 

 Painted Lady. All these I imagine were simple 

 variations from the original form. There is no 

 record, so far as I know, of anyone having set 

 about the work of raising new varieties scientific- 

 ally until we come to Laxton and Eckford's work, 

 towards the end of the nineteenth century. 



Early in the nineteenth century, a striped 

 variety appeared. In 1837, Messrs. James Carter 

 and Co., of London, offered all the foregoing 

 varieties for sale, and they were the introducers 

 of a number of others, the most noted being 

 Scarlet Invincible, which was the first Sweet 

 Pea to receive a first-class Certificate from the 

 Royal Horticultural Society ; that was in the 

 year 1865. 



Before passing to the work of Mr. Henry 

 Eckford, a short reference is necessary to that of 

 Mr. Thomas Laxton. Mr. Laxton was a fine 

 florist of the old school, whom I knew personally. 



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