July 28, 1900. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
757 
Californian Seeds of some varieties of Sweet 
Peas possess very hard skins—so hard, indeed, that 
they require to be filed. This is largely due to the 
thorough baking which the Peas undergo during the 
harvesting. 
Chinamen are mostly employed on the Sweet 
Pea ranches of California. Their acute imitative 
faculty enables them to rogue the Sweet Pea beds 
with speed and certainty. They are good at com¬ 
paring varieties. 
Blanche Ferry Sweet Pea was, oddly enough, 
first discovered in a small garden off a wayside 
country road in New York State, by Mr. Tracey, 
a seed traveller. It is the most popular variety in 
America at the present time, twenty-five tons of it 
alone being sold annually, 
« 
Chiswick Lectures.—The series of four lectures 
delivered gratituously by Rev. Prof. Geo. Henslow, 
M.A., V.M.H., for the benefit of the students and 
others around Chiswick, having now terminated, 
W. Marshall, Esq., offers three prizes for com¬ 
petition, to be won by examination on six questions 
drawn up by the Professor, and bearing on the 
course he has just completed The prizes are, :st, 
15s.; 2nd, 10s. ; and 3rd, 5s. The lectures through¬ 
out were well attended, and were thoroughly appre¬ 
ciated by all who heard them. 
Johnson’s Culinary and Sweet Pea Show.— 
The Sweet Pea must have a great lift upward to 
greater popularity after such a year as this. Societies 
large and small have had special Sweet Pea shows 
and the large seed supplying houses have nearly all 
made a special effort. Messrs. W. W. Johnson & 
Son, Ltd., Seed Merchants, Boston, Yorks., held a 
special Sweet Pea show on July nth. They offered 
two Silver Medals and £30 in prizes for competition, 
the produce to be grown from seeds supplied by the 
Messrs. Johnson. There were fourteen classes in all, 
and altogether 700 bunches were staged for competit¬ 
ion. Mr. H, Costar obtained first and a Silver Medal 
in the class for twenty-four varieties of Sweet Peas ; 
and Mr. H. Marriott obtained a like award for ten 
varieties of Culinary Peas. Other winners in the 
various classes were : Messrs. Garfit, M.P., G Todd, 
R. Slowe, J. T. Bealy, J. W. Thorns, Z. Ingold, A. 
S. Black, T. Dann, H. Pett, J. Bell, and others. 
Now that the public have had an opportunity of 
realising what may be achieved in the cultivation of 
this simple flower, it should be seen liberally in every 
garden in the kingdom. 
Sweet Peas at Croydon.—If the Sweet Pea was 
a conscious thing and could think, it would no doubt 
be feeling proud of itself at the present time. An 
exhibition, under the auspices of the Croydon 
Horticultural Mutual Improvement Society, was 
held on Wednesday, the 18th inst., and proved a 
huge success. The officials (and we would specially 
mention the secretary, Mr. John Gregory) are to be 
congratulated on the result of their efforts. The 
decorative uses of Sweet Peas in baskets, vases, 
bouquets, and fancy dishes formed one of the strong 
features of the show. Mr. W. J. Simpson, of Falk¬ 
land Park Gardens, South Norwood, wag' a promi¬ 
nent exhibitor. He is chairman of the society. 
Mr. W. J. Prebble, of Shirley House, Croydon, was 
also conspicuous. Mr. Wood, of Rozel, Morland 
Road; Mr. Thos. Butcher, George Street; Mr. 
Thrale, of Coombe Road; and Mr. Bryant, The 
Sycamore, Woodside, were other exhibitors. Mr. 
Matthews, of Wood Lodge, West Wickham ; Mr. 
Wratten, of Dmgwell Avenue ; and Mr. J. R. Box, of 
West Wickham and Croydon had also fine collec¬ 
tions. The number of exhibits altogether totalled 
about 300 vases, baskets, &c. Pianoforte music was 
provided during the evening, and the exhibition was 
visited by a large turn-out of visitors. 
- •§• - 
PEOPLE WE HAVE MET. 
Mr. Henry Eckford, F.R.H.S. 
It is our pleasure on this occasion to make a few 
references to the career and work of Mr. Henry 
Eckford, Wem, Shropshire, who, after the testimony 
of many witnesses during the past week, may justly 
be considered entitled to the name of " Sweet Pea 
King.” He has also been called a prophet, who, 
contrary to the usual rule, has been honoured in his 
own country. After this, “ High Priest of the Sweet 
Pea "would be equally appropriate. Notwithstand¬ 
ing all this he takes, such compliments with 
equanimity and quiet reserve. 
The early years of Mr. Eckford's life were spent in 
Edinburgh, his natal city, and sometime after 
entering the profession of gardening he became 
Mr. Henry Eckford, F.R H S. 
gardener to Dr. Sankey, an ardent lover of 
flowers, whom he served for many years. He 
has now been associated with Wem, a village 
almost on the borders of Wales, for so many 
years that his ardent admirer, the Rev. -W. T. 
Hutchins, has spoken of him as a “ dear old, Scotch- 
Welsh Englishman.” One by one Mr. Eckford took 
up different florists’ flowers with the object of 
improving them. Pansies, Cinerarias, and Primulas 
engaged his attention before he became truly 
engaged upon his real life work. We do not forget, 
however, that he also cultivates culinary Peas with 
great intelligence. 
He has now seen some seventy-six years of life, 
considerably over fifty of which have been devoted 
to the cultivation and improvement of various sub¬ 
jects. Though he has attained to a hale and mature 
age he is as enthusiastic as ever in his life work, the 
crowning or masterpiece of which has undoubtedly 
been the Sweet Pea, the cause of which he adopted 
just twenty-one years ago, so that his connection 
with the popular flower of to-day has reached its 
majority, but whether the work of evolving the 
Sweet Pea as a garden flower has reached its zenith 
remains to be seen. Even should it be discovered 
that the variation in colour has reached its limits, 
much improvement still remains to be accomplished 
in the form of the flower, and in the behaviour and 
constitutional vigour of the plant. 
Since he undertook the improvement of this grace¬ 
ful, handsome, and fragrant flower, at a time when 
the varieties could be numbered on less than the 
fingers of one’s hands, he has raised some eighty, 
more or less, of new and handsome varieties, such as 
he himself in his fondest dreams could scarcely have 
imagined twenty-one years ago. The fame of his 
work has already gone out to the ends of the earth, 
and his name will ever be associated with the im¬ 
provement of the Sweet Pea. At the Sweet Pea 
Conference he showed himself calm and unassum¬ 
ing. He had no fairy and incredible tales to tell of 
wonderful hybrids and cross-bred varieties which he 
had accomplished. The honest 'ruth was that he 
selected the seedling varieties which Nature in 
her own peculiar way had fashioned so frailly, 
beautifully, and strikingly new to cultivation; and 
separating them from the common herd nursed and 
tended them in a way well known to florists generally > 
till they became fixed and stable as variable and 
truly garden flowers may well be expected to become, 
and able to perpetuate a separate existence. In the 
face of these facts the Sweet Pea remains Lathyrus 
odoratus ; as, indeed, the facies of the garden forms 
shows it to be, and Mr. Eckford makes no effort to 
dispute it. 
Besides being a raiser of the first rank, as a culti¬ 
vator and exhibitor he is equally so, and has been 
for many years, during some of which we have been 
privileged to see his handiwork at the Drill Hall 
meetings of the R.H.S., at the Crystal Palace, 
Windsor, and other places where flower shows are 
held. He does not now make his appearance at all 
tnese exhibitions as formerly, but his son, Mr. John 
Stainer Eckford is following in his father’s footsteps, 
having taken over all the more arduous duties re¬ 
quiring the activity, strength, and vigour of a young 
man. We hope that both of them may be able to 
pull together for many years to come, and that the 
Sweet Pea through their efforts will annually rise to 
great and greater perfection. 
BEGONIA GLOIRE DE LORRAINE. 
I was glad to read Mr. Brewer’s experience with the 
leaf propagation of this Begonia, which coincides 
with mine, selfish though it may seem. I tried 
them two different ways by cutting the petiole clean 
away, and cutting horizontally across the lamina or 
back of leaf, similar to the Rex type when increasing 
them, as I have always found the latter root much 
quicker so served. The rest I cut with the petiole 
or leaf stalk attached, with a piece of old wood, but 
all to no purpose, and contrary to my expectation 
the young shoot on the fen that did start showed at 
the back of the leaf. I quite thought it would 
come away at the front of the leaf. I may add that 
those that did start are at a standstill.— J. Mayne, 
Bicton. 
- -—- 
THE PHENOMENA OF GERMINATION. 
The lectures by Rev. Prof. Geo. Henslow, M.A., 
V.M.H., &c., at Chiswick, maintain their high 
power of interest. His lecture on Wednesday, July 
4th, on " The Phenomena of Germination," if it 
announced nothing new, was yet ably expounded. 
Recalling his finishing sentences of the previous 
week's lecture. Prof. Henslow detailed how, by 
repeated divisions of the working cell in the centre 
of the embryo-sac, the endosperm is formed, until, as 
in a Wheat grain, it fills the whole seed. The 
grain of Wheat, Oats, &c., has the greatest percent¬ 
age of the pure starch in its centre, while as we get 
toward the side cells and the investing skin, besides 
the carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, composing starch, 
nitrogen also is found, and this element in combina¬ 
tion with the elements of starch forms aleurone, 
largely found in brown bread. Brown bread, by the 
way, is more nourishing than white bread, and, 
Indeed, the whiter the bread the less nourishing it 
is. 
Approaching the matterof germination, three main 
things are stated to be necessary :—(r) a liberal 
supply of moisture; (2) aright temperature accord¬ 
ing to the kind of seed ; (3) a soil free from any in¬ 
jurious ingredient. Mustard and Cress seeds will 
germinate at a temperature a few degrees above 
freezing point, while Palm seeds, at the opposite 
extreme, require 90° Fahr. English p'auts, as a 
rule, germinate best at 40° Fahr. Until the seedliog 
has roots and leaves developed it cannot live by its 
own exertions, but uses up the starch, the oils, and 
the aleurone which has been previously prepared. 
Prof. Henslow recapitulated the recent discoveries 
made in France on the point of symbiosis in plant 
life, a report on this theme having appeared at page 
668 of The Gardening World, June 16th, 1900. 
The radicle of the Date protrudes through a soft 
spot in the shell of the Date seed, and under the 
force of gravity it grows gyratingly downward The 
plumule, on the other hand, is affected by the light, 
and it develops in the opposite direction, and it also 
has a " waggling ” or circumnutating motion. From 
experiments made, the lengthening of roots has been 
proved to take place by growth only at the apex 
Before the starch (which the seedling utilises) can 
be of anv use to the plant it must become liquid. 
By the aid of a ferment which is secreted, by the 
absorbent cells of the embryo, this matter is accom¬ 
plished. The reason why newly ripened seeds and 
bulbs, tubers, &c., do not, as a rule, start growth so 
readily in autumn, lies chiefly in the fact that this 
ferment within them has not developed far enough 
at that time. By spring it has accumulated and, 
