GROWING FLOWER SEED IX THE SAXTA CLARA VALLEY. 97 



The sweet pea has proved to be the people's flower. It is easily 

 grown by everybody, and the seed is cheap. Our California sweet pea 

 seed is vastly superior to any other grown elsewhere. It has more 

 vitality and germinates more readily, due to the natural conditions here, 

 which allow the seed to mature well. 



When we began growing sweet peas there were some ten or twelve 

 named varieties, and it has been our privilege to plant every season for 

 many years the new introductions from all sources as fast as they came 

 before the public, until now there are some one hundred and sixty listed 

 varieties. It has also been our privilege to be, ourselves, the originators 

 of twenty-five tall or climbing varieties which have been introduced by 

 prominent seed dealers, and it is gratifying to find that a large number 

 of these novelties are popular and appear in all critical preferred lists. 



In addition to these tall or climbing novelties we have been the 

 originators of the race of Cupids or dwarf sweet peas. In 1894 we dis- 

 covered the first white dwarf, and named it Cupid. The next year 

 another was discovered in pink and white, and called Pink Cupid, and 

 henceforth the whole race of dwarfs took Cupid as a surname. 



With the first dwarf we began to cross fertilize it with tall or climb- 

 ing varieties, and when the second Cupid arrived we began diligently 

 to cross these two on one another as well as on tall ones, and to our 

 great delight we were rewarded by direct results so complete and prompt 

 that in 1898 we had no less than fifty distinct shades and types of 

 Cupids, and in 1900, or last season, we had in our trial grounds no less 

 than one hundred different shades and colors of various markings, 

 shapes, and sizes, fully as distinct as in the tall sorts. Only thirteen 

 have been offered to the public, and it will probably get the best ones 

 in but limited numbers for some time, since anything is likely to be 

 but little appreciated when it is too common. 



The type called bush sweet pea also originated with us, beginning 

 with one of the Gray Friar variety. It was not put before the public 

 until 1897, and has not been tried sufficiently as yet to have established 

 its value. By cross fertilization and selection our results have been 

 almost as marked as in the case of Cupids for the same length of time, 

 and in 1900, or last season, we had in our trial grounds no less than 

 fifty distinct shades and colors. 



The sweet pea being our chief specialty, it has naturally been favored 

 with more attention than any other flower we grow, and the system of 

 careful selection already explained has been carried on to a considerable 

 degree of completeness, and in the development of new varieties a great 

 deal of cross-fertilization work has been done. This crossing breaks 

 up the strain, and causes it to sport freely, and these sports have been 

 the originals of our best novelties. It requires an immense amount of 



