PREFACE 



ONE of the most remarkable facts in relation to present-day 

 flower gardening is the development and popularisation of 

 the Sweet Pea, which has gained for itself a position never 

 previously held by a purely annual species. The claim of 

 the Sweet Pea, therefore, for representation in the present 

 series could not be overlooked. 



The author, Mr. Horace J. Wright, is well known as the 

 first secretary of the National Sweet Pea Society, and later as 

 Chairman of the General and Executive Committees of that 

 body. He has been connected most intimately with all the 

 circumstances which have attended the development of the 

 flower ; therefore his experience is exceptional. It is this very 

 experience which induced Mr. Wright to ask Mr. Thomas 

 Stevenson to contribute a chapter on the special culture 

 needed for exhibition flowers, for Mr. Wright's management 

 of the N.S.P.S. exhibitions has impressed him with the value, 

 in exhibition culture, of small details to which other culti- 

 vators need pay but little regard. Mr. Stevenson's extra- 

 ordinary successes at the competitive exhibitions should 



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