SWEET PEAS UP TO DATE 



an improvement in size and of a form so distinctly new, 

 the immense standard and wings being beautifully 

 frilled and waved, that it created a perfect sensation 

 at the Show, but since the advent of its introduction in 

 1904 the new waved or orchid-flowered varieties have 

 been added to considerably, these being either sports 

 from the popular Countess Spencer, or the results of 

 the careful hybridist. 



The first "Spencer" sports to appear were John 

 Ingman and Helen Lewis, followed by Mrs. Charles 

 Foster and Mrs. Charles Mander. Since then many 

 new colors have been evolved, a list of which is given 

 on pages 45 to 72. 



About the time that Mr. Cole brought out Countess 

 Spencer the same variety was found as a sport in that 

 fine old grandiflora variety, Prima Donna, by Mr. Viner, 

 of Frome, Somerset, and W. J. UNWIN, of Histon, Cam- 

 bridge, also found a sport in Prima Donna, and this he 

 called Gladys Unwin. It is also of the wavy type and 

 of much the same shade of pink as Countess Spencer, 

 but the flowers do not come quite so large. / 



I must also chronicle the advent of the harly or 

 Winter-flowering Spencer Sweet Pea. The American 

 varieties of this new type are all the result of careful 

 crosses, but some four or five years ago the great Aus- 

 tralian variety, Yarrawa, appeared in that country as a 

 direct mutation or sport from a summer flowering Spen- 

 cer. This is a most valuable race, especially for Winter 

 forcing under glass, though it is also useful for winter 

 and spring flowering in the open in all f rostless countries, 

 and at least a few of them should be included in all 

 Sweet Pea collections, even in our Northern States, to 

 prolong the flowering season. 



