"COUNTESS SPENCER" 9 



honour that no one attribute should be exploited at the 

 expense of others. 



With the institution of the National Sweet Pea Society 

 in 1900 many other raisers came into prominence, and 

 they have done excellent work since that time. Novelties 

 succeeded novelties in unbroken sequence, and while some 

 were given names to which they were not entitled, being 

 insufficiently distinct from others, or lacking good qualities 

 themselves, the majority merited the popularity to which 

 they attained. 



Eckford and his contemporaries achieved wonders, but 

 all their varieties had smooth or hooded standards, there- 

 fore when Silas Cole, gardener to Earl Spencer, Althorp 

 Park, Northampton, showed a shell-pink variety with waved 

 standards and wings, at an exhibition at the Royal Aquarium 

 in 1901, the Sweet Pea world simply lost its head in amaze- 

 ment. Here, indeed, was something different from, and 

 infinitely more beautiful than, anything that had yet been 

 seen. Silas Cole was worried nearly out of his life for 

 seeds, but eventually the stock passed into the hands of 

 Robert Sydenham, who, in response to persistent agitation, 

 was induced to distribute the variety before it had been 

 properly fixed, and it was that error which has led us 

 into so many pitfalls since. Had Countess Spencer been 

 properly fixed prior to distribution, it is well within the 

 bounds of possibility that the trueness that had come, 



