ZVOLANEK S WORK 129 



was given charge of the greenhouses of H. Bolte, Allen- 

 town, Pa.; and afterward those of Emil Leuly, Angelique 

 street, West Hoboken, New Jersey. He had been working 

 upon Sweet Peas during this period and previously. He 

 had even tried to hybridize some species of Vetch with 

 the Sweet Pea. In this connection he wrote to S. B. Dicks, 

 of Cooper, Taber & Co., wholesale seedsmen, London, 

 England, in April, 1907: "The Vetch I have used for 

 hybridizing grows, and is being largely sown, in Bohemia, 

 mostly for green fodder. There are two varieties, one 

 blue, the other red." Mr. Dicks points out that Zvolanek 

 does not say which of these he used, and adds: "The blue 

 flowering Vetch is no doubt Vicia villosa, and the red is 

 probably Lathyrus tuberosus, as this plant grows very 

 freely over the whole of Bohemia. The flowers are very 

 sweetly scented, and the tubers are edible." In August of 

 the same year Zvolanek added the following information : 

 "The Vetch has flowers similar in color to those of the 

 Sweet Pea Captain of the Blues, but they are very small. 

 On the Moravian boundary of Bohemia, in a very moist 

 and cool locality, it begins to bloom early in June." 



In 1892 Mr. Zvolanek discovered among his Sweet 

 Peas an earlier flowering variety among some Lottie 

 Eckford, which was two weeks ahead of the others and was 

 of dwarfer habit. This sport or early form was separated 

 and from the seeds sown the next year he got plants which 

 he cross-bred with Blanche Ferry. Blanche Ferry is, and 

 was, well known for its precocity. Thus two distinctly 

 early blooming Sweet Peas were mated. The seedlings 

 from them, by selection, gave the first distinctly recog- 

 nized Winter-flowering variety of Sweet Pea, 19 years ago, 

 and was named Zvolanek's Christmas. It was intro- 

 duced in 1899. Here was encouragement to go ahead, 



