CHAPTER VI 



A Chat About Varieties 



IT is no light task to write a chapter on varieties of Sweet Peas 

 in the. year 1909 : not only are they innumerable, but some are 

 scarcely distinct from others, although different names distinguish 

 them. There are waved forms, forms with plain standards, and 

 intermediates which are neither the one nor the other. In fact, 

 so numerous "are the aspects of the subject of Sweet Pea varieties 

 that not only a chapter, but a whole book might be written about 

 them. Most of the new . varieties which are put on the market in 

 large numbers every year are of the waved standard form, and it 

 seems to be indisputable that this is to be the Sweet Pea of the 

 future, and that those who practise cross-fertilisation are working on 

 these lines. Still, it would be a thousand pities if we were to lose 

 sight of the plain standard forms, and not for a moment do I think 

 such a thing probable, for not only are there many very beautiful 

 varieties among them, but they possess certain advantages to which 

 the waved varieties are strangers. For example, as a rule their 

 petals are thicker, of greater substance than the latter ; they 

 last longer when cut, and are less likely to lose their colour in 

 strong sunshine, especially when this follows a spell of dull, wet 

 weather, than the Sweet Peas with waved standards, for many of 

 these are of delicate texture perfectly beautiful, it is true, yet 

 scarcely so well adapted to the wear and tear of ordinary garden 

 conditions as the older forms. 



Waved Varieties. Having said this much in favour of the 

 plain standard varieties, I admit, and I think everyone who has 

 grown Sweet Peas must admit, that the waved varieties are far more 

 attractive and of greater beauty than the others. There is some- 

 thing very fascinating about the exquisitely waved margin to some 

 of the new sorts, and their shades of colouring are more tender, more 

 delicately beautiful than the stronger tints of the older sorts. While 

 we are getting away from crude colouring in the new Sweet Peas, and 

 are introducing some exquisitely tender shades, is there not a want 



42 



