lo CULTURE OF THE SWEET PEA 



by an Italian monk who sent seeds to Eng- 

 land and Holland. In England sweet 

 peas were cultivated in many gardens. 

 The plant is one of the species of Lathy- 

 rus, which is a genus of Leguminosse. Un- 

 like other species of this genus, the sweet 

 pea has fragrance, and Linnaeus gave it the 

 name of odoratus. Its scientific name, 

 therefore, is Lathyrus odoratus. The 

 color of the original sweet pea was purple 

 in the standard, and sky-blue in the wings. 

 During the first one hundred years of 

 its history there was little improvement 

 in the sweet pea. A variety with white 

 flowers and another with pink and white 

 flowers were developed. The first half of 

 its second century of cultivation was sig- 

 nalized by the development of several va- 

 rieties, so that in i860 there were nine 

 known varieties. About this time seeds- 

 men began to take greater interest in 



