August 3, 1901. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
779 
“ Gardening is the prrest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man " —Bacon. 
©arfoning 
Edited by J. FRASER, F.L.S., F.R.H.o. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST yd, 1901. 
The Editorial and Publishing Offices are 
now at 4, Dorset Buildings, Salisbury 
Square, Fleet St., London, E.C., where 
all communications and remittances are 
to be addressed to the Proprietors. 
NEXT WEEK'S ENGAGEMENTS. 
Monday, August 5th. — Atherstone Exhiblton ; Castleford 
Exhibition (2 days); Eynsford Exhibition ; Cholmondeley ; 
BeddiDgton, Carshalton, and Wallington. 
Tuesday, August 6th.—Abbey Park, Leicester, Flower Show 
(2 days). 
Thursday, August 8th.—North Oxford Exhibition. 
Saturday, August 10th.— Keighley Horticultural Society. 
THE FIRST EXHIBITION OF THE 
NATIONAL SWEET PEA SOCIETY. 
T will still be fresh in the memory of our 
readers that a number of lovers and 
cultivators of the Sweet Pea had a consul¬ 
tation upon the subject in 1899 and came to 
the conclusion that it would be a fitting 
thing to inaugurate an exhibition and con¬ 
ference to celebrate the bicentenary, that is, 
the 200th year of the introduction of the 
Sweet Pea to Great Britain. This was 
carried to a successful issue at the Crystal 
Palace last year. Since then the question 
arose as to the advisability of founding a 
society whose special duty and care should 
be to foster and encourage the development 
and improvement of the Sweet Pea. The 
Bicentenary Committee was a little behind 
the proper time in formally ascertaining 
whether it was advisable to establish a 
society specially for the benefit of this par¬ 
ticular flower, but when the matter was 
placed before the admirers of the Sweet Pea 
and the public last spring, the promise of 
support was so prompt and decisive that 
the society was at once put on a proper 
footing without delay, and the ultimate 
result has culminated in a most magnificent 
display of a flower that has become exceed¬ 
ingly popular within the last decade. 
The Prospects of the Sweet Pea. —Last 
year the Crystal Palace was fixed upon as 
the place for celebrating the bicentenary of 
the flower ; but on this occasion the exhibi¬ 
tion, the first of its kind, under the auspices 
of the National Sweet Pea Society, was 
held at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster ; 
and whether or not that was the best place 
to take it, there is little doubt in the minds 
of the majority of its admirers that it was 
the most convenient for the time being. 
When the society was first mooted a 
needless agitation was raised—a groundless 
fear—that the Sweet Pea was to be lassoed, 
tamed and tied down to the canons and 
formalities that have strangled several of 
the florists’ flowers more or less. Neverthe¬ 
less, we can say that the bicentenary 
celebration and the first show of tbe society 
proper has shown that a really effective, 
artistic and useful display can be got up 
without the use of formal green boards of 
regulation size and number of holes, without 
the use of moss or other aids of that kind, and 
without the stiff paper collars of the Pink 
and Carnation. The formalities that hamper 
the Rose, Dahlia and Carnation in the 
matter of staging with their artificial and 
monotonous appendages have been dis¬ 
regarded, so that there will be no necessity 
for wrangling over an abortive attempt to 
discard them. As to making the flower 
itself regular and formal there is no danger 
of that, for Nature has so fashioned and 
fixed the stability of the irregular and 
papilionaceous or Butterfly flower that we 
can never get the primness of the incurved 
Chrysanthemum, the dressed Carnation or 
the circular outline of the Auricula. Nor 
are we likely to get the hard and fast out¬ 
line of the arrangement of colours as in the 
last named flower or the narrow limits to 
variation as defined in a laced Pink or gold 
laced Polyanthus. 
Limits of Variation. —At the time of the 
bicentenary celebration the idea was enter¬ 
tained, and is yet by some, that a society 
would have had a better prospect in view if 
it had been founded years ago before the 
Sweet Pea had so nearly reached the limits 
of its variation ; but the fear seems ground¬ 
less in face of the fact that no one has yet 
been able to determine what the final limits 
of variation may be. The same idea may 
have been entertained and promulgated 
nearly 200 years ago that no further varia¬ 
tion, or rather that no mors varieties would 
be obtained than existed at that time. Pro¬ 
bably in the language of the times the Sweet 
Pea was considered a creation over whose 
destinies we had no control, and that it was 
fixed for ever as Joannes Bauhinus described 
it thus, “ Lathyrus angustifolius, flore ex 
albo et rubro variegato, odorato ” 
At the present day, notwithstanding the 
couple of hundred or so of Sweet Peas, the 
cry is still they come, and though many of 
them do not differ much from types already 
in cultivation, a salient variation now and 
again occurs, giving fresh hopes to the raiser 
and the public. The new variety which 
was brought before the Sweet Pea Com¬ 
mittee by Mr. Silas Cole was so distinct in 
its way that many regard it as he prospec¬ 
tive parent of a new race. The leading 
feature of it is the great development of the 
standard and the wings, and the growth being 
slightly unequal in places causes those 
organs to be slightly waved, a characteristic 
which most of those who saw it observed 
at a glance and admired. Whether this 
innovation can be developed along these 
lines in the progeny derived from it re¬ 
mains to be seen ; but we regard the variety 
as a valuable addition to the many existing 
sorts, arid being nearly of a uniform rosy- 
pink colour it belongs to the section of seifs, 
the most universally popular with ail classes 
of growers and admirers. With these facts 
before us we hope and believe that the 
Ultima Thule of the Sweet Pea has not yet 
been reached. According to the rules laid 
down by the society and the fixed determina¬ 
tion of the committee, no unnatural mon¬ 
strosities or oddities in the way of new 
varieties will be encouraged to mar the 
essential features of tbe Sweet Pea as it is. 
Beyond this the limits of variation may be 
free and unfettered so long as it is intrin¬ 
sically beautiful and well balanced as to 
form. 
Utility and Necessity for the Sweet Pea.— 
A large proportion of the late summer 
flowering plants of a hardy character belong 
to the Composites, the prevailing colour 
being yellow, with a few white flowers, 
many of which are by no means character¬ 
ised for their elegance. The need for some¬ 
thing that can easily be grown by the 
masses, and that will answer for house 
decoration in the manifold ways in which 
flowers are required and utilised at the 
present day, is apparent to everyone who 
has to furnish the flowers and those whose 
duty it is to arrange them. There is nothing 
that can supply this want so well as Sweet 
Peas. The varieties already existing include 
an almost endless list of shades and tints of 
the most delicate as well as the most intense 
order, so that they can be had to harmonise 
with almost any style of house furnishing, 
either by daylight or artificial light. The 
colours themselves are of the most lovely 
that may be had in any order of plants, and 
the graceful and elegant habit of the plant 
lends itself to the lightest form of decoration. 
The fragrance of the flowers recommends 
itself to almost any one, even the most 
sensitive to smell ; and, indeed, this 
character has been recognised by botanists 
and other writers from tbe earliest times, 
that is, since the plant was discovered or 
was brought into notice 200 years ago. The 
lovely colour and the scent were recognised 
in the descriptions given of the plant by 
such words as flore peramneno, odoraio, and 
odovatissimo, the superlatives meaning very 
lovely and very fragrant, or much scented. 
Some of the modern varieties have partly 
lost this scent, but we hope it will not 
become lost to the same extent as in the 
Rose and Carnation. In a word the Sweet 
Pea takes its place in the homes of rich and 
poor alike far more gracefully than does the 
Chrysanthemum. Some evidence of this 
lies in the fact that 19 out of 21 entires for 
table decorations came forward on the day 
of the show. 
Number of Flowers on a Stalk.— The 
original and normal number of flowers on a 
stalk of Lathyrus odoratus was two, and 
this is the more permanent characteristic of 
all the modern varieties, though many of 
them produce three freely, while as a result 
of fresh and good soil and careful cultivation 
some of them produce four, and occasionally 
a greater number, up to nine. In the latter 
case the stalk was forked as if it was 
fasciated and this is probably the true 
explanation. We have seen the photograph 
of six flowers on a stalk, likewise forked. 
The production of an extra number of 
flowers by good cultivation should be en¬ 
couraged and the attempt made to fix the 
character, if possible, by selection. 
Some prominent Flowers at the Show.— 
Most observers noticed the frequency with 
which the variety Miss Willmott turned up 
in all the collections shown, attention being 
drawn to it on account of the size, lovely 
and rich colouring of the flowers, though in 
this latter respect it is excelled by the lively 
orange-scarlet of the standard of Gorgeous. 
Both of these are bound to take a leading 
position at shows for a long time to come, 
unless we are very much mistaken as to the 
improvements ahead of us in the immediate 
future. The great expanse and shapeliness 
of the flat or erect standard of Mrs. 
Dugdale, as well as of Prince Edward of 
York, also enlisted the special attention of 
onlookers. Prince of Wales seemed to take 
the place of Her Majesty, the latter not 
being very much in evidence. Many of 
the rich crimson varieties were well shown 
notwithstanding the' very hot and trying 
weather of the weeks preceding the show. 
Mars is recognised as very telling for a 
garden display while Salopian is more 
serviceable for cutting. Coccinea is notable 
for the rapidity with which its dark cerise 
colour gives place to a pale hue in the open. 
The standard varieties were all strongly in 
evidence as might be expected. 
Enthusiasm of the Growers.— The exhibi¬ 
tors of the coming flower, whether 
gardeners, amateurs or nurserymen, gave 
evidence of an enthusiasm and love for their 
flowers, falling little short, if any, of that 
accorded the Chrysanthemum in November. 
Mr. W. Simpson, who took the leading 
award for 36 bunches in as many varieties, 
not only knew all his flowers, but had them 
in his mind’s eye as they were ultimately 
staged, for some time prior to the exhibi¬ 
tion. Mr. H. J. Jones and Hobbies, Ltd., 
staged huge exhibits more or less associated 
with other plants such as they are wont to 
treat the Chrysanthemum in November and 
December, the latter devoting his space 
