SWEET PEAS 



CHAPTER I 

 THE COMING OF THE MODERN SWEET PEA 



I DO not intend to trouble my readers with a long 

 account of the history of the Sweet Pea. A few 

 salient facts must suffice. It is generally agreed 

 that the home of Lathyrus odoratus, the wild 

 Sweet Pea, is the Isles of the Mediterranean, 

 especially Sicily. In 1699, seeds of it were sent 

 to England by a well-known Italian botanist 

 Franciscus Cupani. He was a devout monk of 

 the Church of Rome, and it strikes one as an 

 interesting coincidence that nearly two hundred 

 years later the work of another reverend Father 

 of the same Church should have a remarkable 

 bearing on the development of the modern Sweet 

 Pea. I refer to Abte Mendel. 



The seeds were sent by Cupani to Dr. Uvedale, 

 of Enfield near London, who grew them in 1700, 

 the plants flowering the same year. It will be 

 remembered by many that 200 years later, in 

 1900, the bicentenary of the introduction of the 

 Sweet Pea into Great Britain was celebrated by a 



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