10 



The Florists^ Review 



July 17, 1913. 



us that it is useless to expect results in 

 the first generation, that no matter liow 

 unpromising the flowers may appear, the 

 seed should- be carefully saved and sown 

 again, and then in the second genera- 

 tion we may be rewarded by the appear- 

 ance of some new and improved fovmg 

 or types according to what we have 

 been aiming for, and I know that pre- 

 vious to the knowledge of this law hun- 



dreds of crosses were thrown 



away 



William Sim. 



(Reelected President of the American Sweet Pea Society.) 



had much difficulty in reaching a de- 

 cision. 



The awards to commercial growers 

 were as follows: 



Best general exhibit In vases without foliage — 

 H. Clemens, Newberg, first, gold medal; Rout- 

 ledge Seed & Floral Co., second, silver medal. 



Best table decoration, other than sweet pea 

 foliage allowed — Clarke Bros., first; Martin & 

 Forbes Co., second. 



Best basket of sweet peas, other foliage al- 

 lowed—Max M. Smith, first; H. Clemens, second. 



Best floral piece, either wire design or set 

 piece — ^Max M. Smith, first; H. Clemens, second; 

 special award. American flag, new design, Rout- 

 ledge Seed & Floral Co. 



Among the special displays that of 

 the Routledge Seed & Floral Co. was 

 the most admired. It was a sweet pea 

 representation of the stars and stripes, 

 and the new design recently approved 

 by Congress was used in the arrange- 

 ment of the stars. 



Capt. George Pope's seedling won the 

 gold medal for the best new variety 

 and was named Multnomah Spencer. 



A significant feature of the show was 

 that there were no entries in the class 

 for grandiflora sweet peas. The Spen- 

 cers have supplanted the old type. 



Committeemen in charge of the show 

 were: E, R. Routledge, chairman; J. T. 

 Bacher, secretary. Executive commit- 

 tee — 0. M. Plummer, Captain Pope, Mrs. 

 Stella Durham, Arthur Bowman, H. A. 

 Cushing, R. W. Gill. Showroom and 

 decoration committee — J. Dossche, 

 James Forbes, Eugene O'Hara and J. J. 

 Butzer. 



A FEW NOTES ON SWEET PEAS. 



[A paper by George W. Kerr, of Doylestown. 

 Pa., read before the American Sweet Pea So- 

 ciety at Boston, July 12, 1013.] 



When the evolution of the sweet pea 

 is mentioned our thoughts must imme- 

 diately go back to the late Henry Eck- 

 ford, for, had he not given us that fine 

 old pink variety. Prima Donna, it may 

 be that the Spencer type would not yet 



have been evolved, for Countess Spencer 

 came to us as a sport, or, to follow the 

 new term used by the Dutch botanist, 

 Hugo de Vries, mutation, from Prima 

 Donna, and as we all know this was the 

 forerunner of the beautiful new race 

 of Spencers, many of which are now the 

 results of careful hybridizing, while 

 others are simply sports or mutations 

 from existing sorts. 



Our Debt to Mendel. 



I know I am safe in asserting that 

 had not the Mendelian laws of hybrid- 

 izing been made public, the evolution 

 of the sweet pea would not have been 

 so far advanced, for Mendel has taught 



every year instead of retaining them 

 for the breaks which would jQaturally 

 appear in the next generatioii. 



To those who have the patience and 

 the garden room to spare, for seedlings 

 in the course of two or three years do 

 take up a lot of space if the hybridizer 

 is making many crosses, the raising of 

 new varieties is a most interesting pas- 

 time, but it is well to count the cost 

 ere starting, as no results can possibly 

 be attained until the second generation; 

 that is, two years from the date of 

 making the cross, and two or three 

 years more must elapse ere the grower 

 can satisfy himself that the stock is 

 truly fixed. 



According to the varieties which have 

 been mated, something fine may appear 

 the first year. That is what is termed 

 in Mendelism first generation, or F.l, 

 but the variety is never fixed and al- 

 ways breaks up in F.2, or second gen- 

 eration, and I was greatly surprised to 

 observe quite a number of new sweet 

 peas advertised for registration in the 

 trade papers early this spring as first 

 generation selections, when it is an es- 

 tablished and indisputable fact that no 

 variety is fixed in the first generation. 



Drought, Not Disease. 



Has the sweet pea reached its zenith, 

 or are there new forms and colors yet 

 to be evolved by the specialist? Judg- 

 ing by the introductions of the last few 

 years, which include such magnificent 

 novelties as Elfrida Pearson, Stirling 

 Stent, Thos. Stevenson, Charles Foster, 

 Prince George, Orchid, Decorator and 

 Edith Taylor, just to mention a few, 

 the sweet pea is still in its infancy, and 

 we may hopefully look forward to be 

 yet further delighted with marvelous 

 new shades or types, but so much has 

 been said and written lately about 



Max Smith's Prize Winning Arrangement at the Portland Show. 



'A 



