8 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



the Sweet Pea made the name of Eckford as music to the 

 ears of all who love flowers. 



His first great success was Bronze Prince, but he had 

 not then learned all there was to be learned in regard 

 to fixity. The variety was so inconstant that it failed to 

 retain its popularity for so long a period as it should have 

 done, for in all other respects the flower was excellent. 

 Once on the high road, Henry Eckford never left it. Year 

 after year fresh novelties were obtained, the earliest ones 

 being distributed by others and the later ones by himself ; 

 for he left private service at length and established himself 

 in business at Wem in Shropshire. Each novelty had some 

 marked superiority over its predecessors, and so careful 

 was the great florist that, after one or two early mistakes, 

 he distributed only such varieties as were perfectly fixed. 



Slight variations occurred in the named varieties from 

 time to time, but they were only such as were to be ex- 

 pected in a flower exclusively propagated from seeds, and 

 produced by cross-fertilisation based on no clearly defined 

 lines. Now the raisers have Mendel's laws of inheritance 

 to guide them, and they should be able to produce some 

 wonderful results ; but whatever is done, the name of Henry 

 Eckford will stand for ever above all other names in con- 

 nection with the development of the Sweet Pea. The Eck- 

 fordian varieties showed advancement in substance, size, 

 form, fragrance, and colour, for it seemed to be a point of 



