1894.] ESSAYS. 13 



era of reliable American seed covering the entire list of Sweet Peas, 

 and the best thing about it is that we can supply every one with the 

 finest varieties at a figure that will indeed make it the people's flower. 

 I shall not give away wholesale prices and seedsmen's secrets, for the 

 infinite details of the seed business make it worth ten cents to put 

 one-fourth of an ounce of reliable seed into your hands, although the 

 grower's price, and the wholesaler's price, and the florist's scale price 

 are a long ways off from that. The growers will pay ^5.00 per 

 hundred for seeds of novelties this year, and in two years the retail 

 price will put it into the stock of every florist. Mr. Morse, with his 

 200 acres of Sweet Peas, writes me this week that last season he had 

 just two seeds of Emily Eckford. I suppose that is all that he made 

 germinate from one of Mr. Eckford's sealed packets. I sometimes 

 fail on an entire packet, and sometimes get three plants ; but the 

 second year's seed seems to be all right. But America will revel in 

 this beautiful flower, for we can supply the world with seed. And 

 there will soon be no excuse for any seedsman offering to his patrons 

 a packet that is not true to name. And besides the three or four 

 varieties which are of American origin, we have other original varieties 

 in the works, and shall more likely be troubled with too many than 

 too few. 



And let me say I am especially pleased at the probability of all our 

 seedsmen recognizing a standard list. Now is the time to do it 

 before we get wild over new American varieties. And, certainly, 

 since the Sweet Pea comes true from seed, there is no reason why our 

 entire seed trade should not respect the standard list up to date, and 

 as fast as new varieties of real merit are offered they ought to expect 

 to be recognized by the trade only so far as they have been certifi- 

 cated by some society or association. 



Now take the present status of the Sweet Pea. I hope soon to 

 know the history of every variety. I think I can say I have confi- 

 dence in 76 distinct named varieties, not counting my own. Of these, 

 just 40 are Mr. Eckford's, not counting his Queen of England, which 

 is the commonest kind of a white. Seven of the very latest Eckford's 

 have been seen in England, but not here. My familiarity with all 

 his varieties up to this year leads me to have confidence in his new 

 ones, though I fear we shall not see them even this year. The 49 

 Eckfords that are distinct certainly give him the lead on this flower. 



Mr. Henry Eckford of Shropshire, England, is a specialist, more 

 particularly in developing the Sweet Pea and the culinary pea. He 

 is also at work on pansies and cinerarias. Some of our latest culi- 



