Il6 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



individual varieties. Duplicate pots of the same variety varied 

 considerably in the dates of the production of the first flower-buds. 



By the middle of April, when the bulk of the collection was 

 destroyed, the summer-flowering varieties, which had, throughout the 

 trial, received the same treatment as the winter-flowering ones, had 

 formed tall, bushy plants, but none had produced a flower-bud. (Fig. 45.) 



The winter-flowering varieties retained continued flowering for 

 many weeks ; the summer-flowering ones commenced flowering 

 May 8. 



******** 



There are at least four separate races of winter-flowering Sweet Peas 

 now in cultivation. There seems a disposition to claim the American 

 variety ' Blanche Ferry ' as the ancestor of winter-flowering varieties, 

 but it seems clear that these races have originated in several localities 

 and from distinct ancestors. 



The first-recorded plant of the winter-flowering type appeared in 

 1892, in the greenhouse of Ant. C. Zvolanek, New Jersey, U.S.A., as 

 a sport from 1 Lottie Eckford.' 4 Lottie Eckford ' was introduced by 

 Eckford in 1890, a year after the introduction of ' Blanche Ferry.' 

 The original sport was not put into commerce by Zvolanek. His first- 

 distributed variety was ' Zvolanek's Christmas ' — the offspring of a 

 cross between this sport and ' Blanche Ferry.' 



A second race — the ' Telemly ' — originated in Algeria, as a sport 

 from ' Blanche Ferry.' Its introducer, the Rev. E. Arkwright, gives 

 an account of its origin in the Sweet Pea Annual for 1907. 



In the same number of that journal, C. Engelmann relates the 

 history of another race derived from a winter-flowering form which 

 appeared among some plants of ' Captain of the Blues,' an Eckford 

 variety introduced in the same year as ' Blanche Ferry.' 



At Wisley no differences were observed between these three races. 



The fourth race, comprising varieties from Messrs. Yates, of Sydney, 

 was markedly more robust in habit — a condition which became increas- 

 ingly apparent as the flowering season advanced. Mr. A. Yates, in a 

 communication to the Gardeners Chronicle (vol. 54, 1913, p. 113) 

 and again in the Sweet Pea Annual of 1914, says : '* About five years 

 ago, m the garden of a Mr. James Young, of Sydney, there appeared 

 among a batch of ' Novelty ' * Spencer Sweet Peas one p^nt of true 

 ' Spencer ' type quite distinct from all the others. It was different 

 in its vigorous habit and upright growth, easiness, and cobur ; in 

 fact, it was in full bloom when the others were only a few inches 

 high, and had gone to seed before the normal type had begun to show 

 flower-buds." 



It seems, therefore, that the variety ' Blanche Ferry ' has given 

 rise to only one of these races, the other three having been derived 

 from distinct mutations in widely different localities. 



This view is supported by the fact that a plant of the winter- 



* ' New ' Spencer in Sweet Pea Annual. 



