CHAPTER II 

 THE THREE GREAT GROUPS 



IT will be of interest to call special attention to the three 

 groups into which the varieties of Sweet Peas may be said 

 to be divided, and to relate the main points of difference 

 between them. The original Sweet Pea was a bicolor 

 flower, and it usually carried two blooms on each stem ; 

 the standards were generally erect and flat, the wings 

 smooth, and the segments of the keel were invariably closed, 

 thus rendering cross-fertilisation by natural agencies a 

 remote possibility. Later, in the same group, there came 

 varieties that differed only in colour, while still others 

 varied in the shape of the standard. There were many 

 that hooded their standards, such, to mention a typical 

 example, as the supremely beautiful Lady Grisell Hamilton. 

 Another variatipn took the form of throwing back the 

 margins of the standards, but this rather detracted from the 

 attractiveness of the flower, with the result that compara- 

 tively few of these attained to any marked degree of popu- 

 larity. A further difference was seen in the fact that the 

 standards of many varieties had a notch at the top, and the 



