6 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



the variability of the Spencer type, but rather have accepted 

 it as a matter of course. 



It is abundantly clear that British growers soon com- 

 menced to take advantage of the variation in the flowers, and 

 seeds of distinct varieties were offered as early as 1793 by 

 Mason of Fleet Street, who catalogued and described black, 

 purple, scarlet, and white varieties, and Painted Lady. In 

 these days we believe everything that conies from Fleet 

 Street, but in connection with Sweet Peas there is ample 

 grounds for wondering whether Mason spoke the truth 

 about his scarlets and his blacks. We have not got any 

 black flowers at the present day, and opinions differ as 

 to whether we ought to claim that we have pure scarlet 

 flowers. That is, however, neither here nor there, and it 

 does not alter the fact that evolution had commenced. A 

 black-purple was referred to in 1800, and thirty-seven years 

 later history records a striped flower, and it was with 

 these that James Carter of Holborn, the founder of the 

 present house of James Carter & Co., commenced. From 

 this source was introduced a little later a "yellow" flower, 

 but it may safely be assumed that to find the yellow in 

 it demanded as much imagination as it does to find the 

 yellow in present-day varieties. 



In 1860 the first edged variety appeared ; it was called 

 Blue Hybrid, was brought to light by Major Trevor Clarke, 

 and was said to be the result of a cross between a white 



