SWEETNESS AND LIGHT 39 



a good job. Unless this comes to pass, do not blame the 

 seedsman when seeds refuse to come up and do their best. 



Our trusted friend Eben Rexford bids us have patience 

 and wait until May before sowing annuals. Turn the 

 pages of the familiar log book. Oh, rapture ! It is sweet- 

 pea planting time. "Sow in new ground as soon as it can 

 be worked, except the white-seeded sorts, which should not 

 be sown until the ground is comparatively warm and 

 dry. Sweet peas do better in cool weather than in hot, 

 sending strong roots deep into the soil." 



My country friend favors a screen of brush for his 

 sweet peas, which stand tiptoe, looking out sweetly from 

 the brown twigs. Coarse-meshed wire netting, fastened 

 to posts, makes a practical trellis which the sweet peas 

 will cover with a leafy green and fragrant decoration 

 from June to November. The failure of sweet peas usu- 

 ally may be traced to neglect on the part of the gardener. 



The choice of color is a personal matter, as all sweet 

 peas are lovely. Our friends who have the naming pas- 

 sion, who dote on calling snapdragons antirrhinums and 

 everyday plants by many-syllabled Latin titles, can in- 

 dulge their memories with the select "400" of sweet-pea 

 society. What a delight to mention "Lady Grizel Hamil- 

 ton," "Countess Spencer Var," when we have our com- 

 pany manners on; or, when we are sportive, to talk 

 jocularly of the "Gray Friar" or "Captain of the Blues." 



The day of the first blossom on the trellis will mark an 



