NEW SWEET PEAS. 



11 



in his grounds at Wem a flower of the same form and colour, 

 though he had never shown it. And then there is Mr. Unwin's 

 experience. He found ' Gladys Unwin ' about the same time. It 

 came as a variation in ' Prima Donna,' one of the parents of ' Countess 

 Spencer,' according to Mr. Cole. I have asked Mr. Eckford if he 

 will throw light on the subject by making public the origin of his 

 stock of ' Countess Spencer.' 



These problems are, perhaps, of more interest to the scientific man 

 than to the gardener. You observed the statement in Mr. Cole's letter. 

 Mr. Sydenham sent the stock of ' Countess Spencer ' to America to 

 be grown, and when it came back, and was grown in this country the 

 following year, it produced, besides the true variety, a multitude of 

 varieties entirely different from ' Countess Spencer. ' Why it did so I 

 have not time to discuss to-day. I have my own views on that point. 

 Out of the seed Mr. Sydenham distributed (some of which was grown 

 by everyone who was keenly interested in sweet peas) came directly 

 and indirectly many of the waved varieties which were introduced 

 during the immediately succeeding years. As soon as * Countess 

 Spencer' was available as a parent, cross-fertilization with it began, 

 but the progeny took time to fix, and it was not until 1907 or 1908 

 that many varieties, the result of crossing, found their way on to the 

 market. All others, up to that time, were selections out of the original 

 stock. 



Many reasons and explanations have been given for waved or 

 Spencer sweet peas not coming true. I say, unhesitatingly, it was 

 caused largely by raisers being in too great a hurry to get novelties 

 on to the market. In a long line of seedlings from a particular cross 

 there might be fifty or 100 plants closely resembling one another. 

 I know for a fact seed was often saved from these, bulked all together, 

 and sold as a new variety. The proper procedure is to mark a few 

 only of such plants, those showing the finest characters, save the seed 

 of each plant separately, sow and grow separately next season, and 

 adopt for stock seed the produce of the plant which in all essentials 

 is fixed. 



Of course, there may not be one such in the whole lot. If not, 

 there is no help for it but just to begin over again. 



It is quite a simple operation to cross sweet peas, but it is by no 

 means an easy task to follow it up. In 1907 I made a number of 

 crosses. One of many was * The King ' x ' Primrose Seedling. ' I got 

 seven seeds in the pod. These seven seeds were sown in Spring, 1908, 

 and made fine plants. It was a good summer, and from the seven 

 plants I got 17J ounces of seed — over 5,000 seeds. To grow on all 

 these the following year, to watch for breaks, was a heavy task, but 

 imagine that number multiplied by fifty or sixty, and you get an idea 

 of what is done by one firm to get novelties. 



1909 was a wretched season for sweet peas, and countless numbers 

 of fine plants never set a seed. Nature reduced the total of my 

 seedlings and selections by ninety or ninety-five per cent., and saved me 



