July 28 1900. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
755 
KENT: THE GARDEN OF ENGLAND. 
EARLY STRAWBERRY PLANTS 
In Little Pots for Forcing; and Stout Runners. 
GEO. BUNYARD & Co., 
The Royal Nurseries, MAIDSTONE, 
BEG TO SAY THAT THEIR 
NEW DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE FOR 1900 
IS NOW READY, AND MAY BE HAD FREE ON APPLICATION. 
It contains the 50 Best Known Sorts, and the Newest Hybrid Autumnal Kinds, guaranteed true to 
name, and also Special Directions for Forcing, Open Ground, and Tub Cultivation. 
NEW ROSE AND FRUIT CATALOGUE IN AUGUST. 
“Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man 11 — Bacon. 
Edited by J. FRASER, F.L.S. 
SATURDAY , JULY 2W1, 1900. 
NEXT WEEK’S ENGAGEMENTS. 
Tuesday, July 31st.— Meeting of the Royal Horticultural 
Society. 
Thursday, August 2nd.—Maidenhead Horticultural Society’s 
Show. 
Friday August 3rd.—Devon and Exeter Horticultural 
Society's Show. 
JPHE Bicentenary of the Sweet Pea.— 
A As it was 200 years ago, so it is to-day ; 
the Sweet Pea, or Sweet-scented Pea, as it 
was called by Miller, is Lathyrus odoratus. 
Some attempts have been made at one time 
or another to hybridise it with some other 
species, but beyond records of success or 
failure, the hundreds of bunches of Sweet 
Peas tabled at the Crystal Palace on the 
20th and 21st inst., were Lathyrus odoratus, 
pure and simple, without admixture of other 
blood. This accords with the net results of 
inquiry into the origin and evolution of such 
garden flowers as the greenhouse Cyclamen, 
Chinese Primula, Carnation, Pink, 
Cineraria, and many others. We are face 
to face with the fact that the Sweet Pea has 
been grown for 200 years in this country 
before it was honoured with a special show 
and conference, such as has often been done 
for the Rose, Carnation, Auricula, Dahlia, 
and others. That the exhibition has been 
a success has been abundantly proved. 
Had it been held a week earlier before the 
advent of the great wave of heat varying 
from 85^ to 95° in the shade, the exhibi¬ 
tion would have been finer and the flowers 
more lasting. They should have been 
fresher on the second day than the first had 
it not been for the culminating and over¬ 
powering heat of the first day. Organisers 
of future Sweet Pea shows would do well to 
remember this. As it was we have the 
opinion of the Rev. W. T. Hutchins, of 
Indian Orchard, Massachussetts, U.S.A., 
the American Sweet Pea expert, that the 
show on the 20th and 21st was the finest 
that has ever been held in the history of the 
Sweet Pea. The reverend gentleman was 
simply overwhelmed with the quantity of 
flowers, the uses we can put them to, the 
size of the flowers, and above all, the rich 
colour assumed by the flowers of the respec¬ 
tive varieties in Britain with its relatively 
cool and moist climate as compared with 
the dry and hot climate of the United 
States. Such warm testimony, even 
although from a man speaking our own 
tongue must be very gratifying to us ; but 
we must not forget the fact that we are 
peculiarly favoured in the matter of climate 
m our little island, and that we hav^ the ad¬ 
vantage of a vast concentration of effort and 
ability within a short radius of the Metro¬ 
polis, whereas in the United States there 
are vast possibilities, but they are scattered 
over a land that has to be measured by 
thousands of miles, where the difficulties of 
concentration or centralisation are very 
great. There is no lack of ability in the 
United States, and we give them full credit 
for what they do and what they can do 
there. 
The fact remains, however, that the 
origin and full force of the evolution of this 
popular and beautiful flower has taken 
place in this island. The Rev. W. T. 
Hutchins admitted as much, and said that 
the Americans wished us to retain the lead 
in the evolution of the Sweet Pea. This 
was certainly a very graceful concession; 
and he further stated that the evolution of 
the Sweet Pea within the last twenty-one 
years will always remain associated with 
the name of Mr. Henry Eckford, YVem, 
Shropshire. Several splendid varieties have 
been raised in the United States, but Mr. 
Hutchins said that they were rendered 
possible chiefly through the efforts of Mr. 
Henry Eckford. There have been previous 
workers in the field, struggling with the 
difficulties of making the original wilding 
“ come out of us buckie,” that is, to put out 
its horns, and depart from the originally 
simple state of the wild Sicilian plant. The 
reward for thus responding to the will of 
man, if reward it could feel, is its being, 
and that it will be, cultivated over the 
whole of the temperateregions of the globe, 
instead of being confined to its wild home 
in Sicily and the adjacent shores of the 
mainland of Italy near Naples. It is 
peculiarly a garden plant, and does not 
seem to accord with the dry and warm 
climate of Sicily, for in gardens it likes cool 
and moist weather, in the absence of which 
it soon runs to seed in its own interest, it 
would be fair to assume. We have further 
testimony to this peculiarity in the state¬ 
ment at the banquet by Herr Fritz Benary, 
of Erfurt, that the Sweet Pea does well in 
Germany, but poorly in France, Italy, or 
any other of the southern countries of 
Europe. How are we to reconcile this 
with the recorded history that a variety of 
the Sweet Pea, differing only in colour from 
the type, was introduced from Ceylon as a 
