74 



THE VEGETABLES OF NEW YORK 



separated from it by differences. The resemblance of 

 the varieties in this group starts with the seeds, which in 

 practically all are large-, well wrinkled and cream and 

 green in color. In an examination of the 1928 crops on 

 the Arlington Farm plats of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, using five pods selected as typical from each 

 of about 15 varieties of this group. Col. C. B. Sayre of 

 this Station and the senior author could find no constant 

 separately differences. The pods so varied in the variety 

 or were so much alike in different varieties, in shape, 

 size and color, that it would have been impossible to 

 distinguish one variety from another by these selected 

 pods; and it would have been very easy to have chosen 

 from a considerable quantity of the pods of any variety, 

 similar groups of five pods showing as great differences. 

 The various differences were much less than strain differ- 

 ences in many well-known varieties in other groups. 

 In our tests, in a few cases, as with Amateur Pride and 

 The V. C, the seeds sown were all cream colored with- 

 out trace of green, but the harvested seeds were either 

 all light green or mingled cream and green. It is possible 

 that a few varieties, like Gradus, now placed in the 

 Wrinkled, Cream-seeded group, might be placed in the 

 Telephone group, but usually any large podded peas 

 placed in the cream-seeded group differed from Tele- 

 phone in other characters than seed. 



Laxton Superlative. Refs. 1; Gard. Chron. 

 1199. 1872: Roy. Hort. Soc. Jour. 12:35. 1890; 

 Rural N. Y. .{1:365. 1872; Hogg Gard. Yr. Bk. 

 11:85. 1873: Thorburn Car. 1873: N. Y. Sta. Rpt. 

 3:244. 1885. Superlative originated prior to 1871 

 with Laxton, and was advertised for sale in that year by 

 Hurst. Early references to it say it was the result of a 

 double cross between Ne Plus Ultra and an unnamed pea 

 whose parents were Laxton Supreme and a second 

 unnamed sort. This may have been Tall White Sugar, 

 since Laxton said, later, that Superlative had in it the 

 " blood " of a tall sugar pea, which gave it its large and 

 too often " puffy " and poorly filled pods, but which 

 made it useful in breeding new varieties for pod size. 

 Superlative was later handled by other English seed 

 firms, was noticed by an American periodical in 1871, 

 and was introduced here in the next year — very 

 prompt action, induced undoubtedly by the remarkable 

 size of Superlative's pods, which, in England, were 

 sometimes 7 inches long. 



It was grown at this Station in 1884, as was Tele- 

 phone, from the records of which tests the following 

 points of difference from Telephone are taken, char- 

 acters for Superlative being given first: 



Height 3 to 5 feet, 3 to 4 feet: rarely branched, sometimes 

 branched: stalks 1 to 2' i inches long, 1 to 4 inches; pods single, 



paired: pod length often 4 inches, 3 to 4 inches; pods very 

 plump or inflated, pods sometimes slightly inflated: peas 5 to 8, 

 4 to 9: seeds mostly cream colored, seeds varying from almost white 

 to pale green; seeds roundish and scarcely indented, shriveled and 

 indented; seeds 80 per ounce. 87; not prolific, prolific: rather late, 

 rr.i'ivav-n H -. ^ •-, •- ■':.• f Bag] m lorgl . broad, pal'. [**ls 

 sometimes 7 inches long, irregular in outline, much curved, pointed. 

 often poorly filled. 



Laxton Superlative has probably not been grown 



in either England or America during the present cen- 

 tury, so cannot be confused with Sutton Superlative, 

 introduced in 1906, tho both come in the Telephone 

 group. 



Telephone. Refs. 2-9; Rural N. Y. 10:272. 

 1881 . Telephone was a sport from Telegraph or resulted 

 from an accidental cross in it, and was selected from that 

 variety about 1878 by Carter. It soon became very 

 widely distributed in England; and after 1881, in Amer- 

 ica. Telegraph had as its parents Veitch Perfection and 

 Laxton Prolific Long-pod, one having wrinkled, the other 

 dimpled peas. Telegraph followed Laxton Prolific and 

 produced dimpled peas; but must have had, as a recessive 

 character, the wrinkling shown by Veitch Perfection, 

 which reappeared in Telephone. Both Telegraph and 

 Telephone showed marked increase in pod size, probably 

 due to the added vigor so often noted in cross-bred 

 seedlings. However induced, both peas had the long, 

 broad pods characteristic of so many modern peas 

 which had previously been shown, in the type with 

 pointed or long-rounded ends, only by Laxton Super- 

 lative or some of the edible-pod peas, with which neither 

 Telegraph nor Telephone have any apparent connection. 

 Telephone was not well fixed in character when first 

 disseminated, showing great variations in color of fcliage 

 and of pods, some of the selected strains from it being 

 continued under the same name, with or without quali- 

 fying adjectives, others receiving new names, thus 

 giving a very intricate synonymy. This diversity of 

 strains makes it impossible to say definitely what char- 

 acters or what degrees of slightly variant characters 

 marked the first Telephone; but it is certain that it was 

 lighter in color, both of foliage and pod, than most of 

 the strains now sold under the name of Telephone. 

 Some of the characters of an early strain are noted in the 

 comparison between this variety and Laxton Superla- 

 tive. Several strains have been grown in our recent 

 tests; and from these, particularly from the lightest 

 colored strain, the following quite detailed description 

 is given: 



Seed quite uniform in general appearance, much wrinkled, 

 oval to oblong across the pod axis, indented along the axis, some 

 being almost cylindrical, quite large 104 to the ounce , greenish 

 cream and light yellowish green in color, over greenish yellow 

 cotyledons, with radicles obscure: plants 4}£ to 5 feet tall, trailing 

 so that support is necessary, of vigorous growth; stems moderately 

 stout, rather coarse, angular, quite smooth on the surface, with 

 long internodes, rarely branched, but occasionally showing a few 

 slender basal branches; foliage abundant, medium green in color, 

 with little bloom on leaflets but some on stipules; leaflets usually 4, 

 rarely 6, large to medium in size, broad; stipules deeply clasping 

 stem, slightly larger than the leaflets, with sharp tips and teeth 

 half way to the tip. of same basal color as leaflets but much more 

 whitened; tendrils not characteristic; flowers begin about the 12th 

 node, almost always single, not characteristic; pods single, on long, 

 slender stalks, with large to medium-sized receptacles and straight, 

 not characteristic sepals. 3 '4 to 4' 2 inches long, mostly between 

 3} j to 4', inches, moderately broad, plump, somewhat wrinkled 

 when ready for picking: straight, with long, almost parallel sides, 

 without constrictions between the peas, usually well filled to the 

 edge but not well filled to the pointed or long-rounded ends, which 

 sometimes show also a dorsal slope toward the point, same in color 

 or lighter than the foliage, hardly medium green; peas 7 to 9, very 



