THE NEW SWEET PEA GROWING 147 



which are as often spoken of collectively as " Spencers " 

 as " waved " or " frilled." The American raisers, indeed, 

 adopted the eminently sensible plan of adding the suffix 

 " Spencer " to the name of the old-type variety of which 

 a frilled form was developed. Thus, the modern form of 

 the old crimson King Edward became King Edward 

 Spencer, the old cream Queen Victoria changed into 

 Queen Victoria Spencer, and so on. 



The " Spencer " varieties are now the ruling class, 

 and will hold undivided sway until such time as the double 

 Sweet Peas (of which more anon) are developed, for the 

 plain-type sorts are moribund. It is true that a few, 

 such as Black Knight, maroon with shining standard ; 

 Coccinea, cerise ; Dorothy Eckford, white ; Duke of 

 Westminster, violet ; Helen Pierce, veined blue ; King 

 Edward VII, crimson ; Lady Grisell Hamilton, lavender ; 

 Lord Nelson (Brilliant Blue), dark blue ; Miss Willmott, 

 salmon pink ; Mrs. Walter Wright, mauve ; Queen 

 Alexandra, scarlet ; and Queen of Spain, blush with 

 salmon suffusion, are still grown in small gardens and for 

 market ; but even they are passing. Perhaps Coccinea, 

 Dorothy Eckford, Helen Pierce, Lord Nelson and Queen 

 Alexandra have been the most difficult to establish 

 satisfactorily in the Spencer form, and to this day we 

 lack a really substantial pure white and a brilliant dark 

 blue of the frilled type. 



The rise in popularity of the Sweet Pea has brought a 

 host of raisers into being, with the result that in many 

 cases one variety comes on to the market under several 

 different names simultaneously. Thus the buyer is in 

 a very different position from that which he occupied 

 when practically every new Sweet Pea came from the 

 same source. If in one sense he is better off, in so far as 

 he has greater freedom of choice, in another he is worse, 



