OF ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS, 
131 
row of sweet peas may be seen occasionally with their blossoms turning and quivering in the breeze, till they look 
really like a flock of butterflies seeking for spots to deposit their eggs. It is rather singular that these flowers, 
though the commonest kind is a native of Sicily, should never have been introduced till the beginning of the past 
century ; the first sweet pea that was seen in England having blossomed in Dr. Uvedale’s garden at Enfield, in 
the year 1701, as we are told by Dr. Plukenet, who went to see it there. A few years afterwards (1713) we 
find it included in the list of ornamental flowers in the Botanic Garden, Chelsea. We may easily conceive the 
delight and wonder the first appearance of this flower’, and its extraordinary sweetness, must have occasioned, 
and how proud Dr. Uvedale must have been of possessing it. 
Sweet peas in the grounds of a nursery are generally planted in rows ; but in flower gardens they are either 
sown in a circle, with a stake, or slight wooden frame in the middle, for them to be trained to; or suffered, as 
Cowper so elegantly expresses it, to 
“-- catch a neighbouring shrub, 
With clasping tendrils, and invest its branch, 
Else unadorn’d, with many a gay festoon 
And fragrant chaplet, recompensing well 
The strength they borrow with the grace they lend.” 
The seeds may be sown at different seasons • if sowrn in autumn, and protected by a mat or other slight 
covering thrown over the ground in severe frost, they will flower early; or they may be sown in the same 
manner in February, in which case they are said to produce the finest flowers. The usual time of sowing is, 
however, April. The soil should be rich and light, as the roots, though weak and slender, penetrate deeply ; 
and for the same reason the seeds should always be sown where the plants are to remain, as it is hardly possible 
to take up the long slender roots without injuring them. Thinning out should also be avoided, as pulling up 
one plant, loosens the earth round the roots of the others ; thus each patch or pot should contain only three or 
four seeds. 
The florists who raise flowers for sale in the London markets, derive a considerable portion of their trade 
from forcing sweet peas, and the quantity thus grown in pots every year is almost incredible. The seeds for 
this purpose are sown in pots in autumn, and then kept in hotbed frames, but without any manure; all that is 
necessary being to protect them from the frost. They require to be frequently watered with warm water, and 
to be covered up very closely after each watering, to prevent the possibility of the ground freezing while in a 
moist state. They may thus be kept with very little light or air ; but when the blossom-buds begin to form, 
the pots must be placed in the window of a living room, or in a small greenhouse to give them colour. As soon 
as this is effected, the sweet peas are sent to market, where they sell from a shilling to lialf-a-crown a pot, 
according to circumstances ; even a shilling being sufficient to afford a very handsome profit to the grower. 
2.—LATHYRUS TINGITANUS, Lin. THE TANGIER PEA. 
Engravings. —Bot. Mag. t. 100 ; and our fig. 2, in Plate 23. 
Specific Character. —Plant quite smooth. Stems winged. Leaf¬ 
lets ovate, obtuse, mucronulate. Stipules ovate, semi-sagittate, much 
shorter than the petioles. Peduncles two-flowered, longer than the 
leaves. Calycine teeth nearly equal, shorter than the tube. Legumes 
oblong-linear, much reticulated, compressed, tomentose, with the 
sutures thick. Seeds hardly angular, variegated with black and brown. 
—(G. Don.) 
Description, &c. —The flowers of the Tangier pea are very splendid in appearance, but they want the 
sweetness that distinguishes those of the preceding species. The standard of the flower of the Tangier pea is of 
s 2 
