July 25, 1903. 
The Gardening World 
GENERAL NOTICES. 
idequatd^represented'in Sfcof“o? 1H “to™ W^ld. 38 *" “ adVaDCe 88 P ° 3SiWe aS to dates ° f meetinga ' 9hoW3 > eto ’ We de,lr9 to do a11 ia P°™ to hare theae 
rhey wdfl tlfereby^ot "onl^oblige * dT6rttain ‘ ta th “ paper ' that their ad vertisem e nt waa seen in The Gabdening World. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“The fairest flowers o’ the season are our Carnations, and streaked (jillifLowers.’’—Shakespeare. 
Weekly Prize 
FOR 
Short Articles. 
The Proprietors of The Gardening World 
will give a cash prize of Ten Shillings for 
THI BEST PARAGRAPH, Or SHORT ARTICLE, Sent 
by readers during the week. The Editor’s 
judgment must be considered final, and he will 
be at liberty to use any of the contributions 
sent in. The paragraph, or article, must not 
EXCEED ONE COLUMN IN LENGTH, but the Value, 
rather than the length, of the article will be 
considered in making the award. Competitors 
may send in item? of news or comments on 
news; hints of practical interest to gar¬ 
deners or growers of plants, fruits, or flowers; 
successful methods of propagating plants 
usually considered difficult; or contributions 
ON ANY SUBJECT COMING WITHIN THE SPHERE 
of gardening proper. Letters should be 
addressed to The Editor, marked “ Competi¬ 
tion,” and posted not later than Friday night 
to ensure insertion in the issue of next week. 
The following Coloured 
Plates have appeared :— 
March 14.— NEW CHINESE PRIMULAS. 
March28.— TEA ROSE “ CHAMELEON.” 
April 4.— COLEUS THYRSOIDEUS. 
April 18.— CESTRUM SMITHII. 
April 25. -JAPANESE PIGMY TREE. 
May 23.-Coloured Plate of SAXIFRAGA 
GRISEBACHII and A GROUP OF ALO 
CASIAS. 
May 30.—Coloured Plate of DENDROBIUM 
NOBILE ROTUNDIFLORUM and D.n. 
NOBILIUS. 
June 6.—Monochrome plate of CALADIUMS. 
June 20.—Monochrome Plate of ZENOBI 
SPECIOSA PULVERULENTA. 
July 4.—Coloured Plate of APHELANDR. 
aurantiaca roezlii. 
July li. _ Monochrome Plate of th 
AUSTRALIAN PITCHER PLANT. 
Back numbers may be obtained from the 
publishers, price 2£d. post free. 
With the PRESENT ISSUE we present 
Plate of the CONSERVATORY 
AT HARTBURN. 
NEXT WEEK we shall give a Coloured 
Idate of BORONIA HETEROPHYLLA. 
Views and Reviews. 
The Advance of the Sweet Pea. 
The 1 annual exhibition, of the National 
Sweet Pea Society, held at Earl’s Court, last 
week, again, afforded an opportunity of not¬ 
ing what advance, if any, is being made by 
the Sweet, Pea. The society was formed 
some years after the Sweet Pea had reached 
its. zenith, so to speak, in so far as the 
numerous shades of colour have been, evolved: 
and names, given to> them. It remains,' how¬ 
ever, to, develop larger flowers,, and to pro¬ 
duce finer shades of colour even than those 
already existing. In some cases it may seem 
impossible, to do this, as some of; the shades 
seem almost perfect. In the production of 
self-coloured flowers, however, much remains 
to be done. Amongst the hundreds of 
varieties already existing, the careful ob¬ 
server can see that a very large proportion 
of them have at least two shades of colour, 
making them practically bicolors, although 
there is a, well-marked section set off for 
that combination in the catalogue of the 
society. Even those that are put down asi 
rose, pink, crimson, and other shades, as if 
they were actually seifs, exhibit two, distinct 
shades at least, even in many of the finest 
. and most popular. We make these remarks 
to dispel the idea entertained by some people 
that nothing remains to be done by a society. 
Hitherto most of the new varieties have 
arisen a,s sports owing to the conditions! 
under which the plant has' been grown and 
other agencies that have a, tendency to dis¬ 
turb the constitution of the plant. The 
Sweet Pea, is also' self-fertilising, and all the 
varieties in existence have been evolved from 
one species only. Under these conditions, 
one would naturally be afraid that the con¬ 
stitution of the plant would be weakened. 
The Sweet Pea,, in this respect, remains a, 
conundrum for the scientists to, solve, and 
how long the Sweet Pea may retain its 
vigour with such close inbreeding remains to 
be seen. In the experience of a large 
number of cultivators, that which has the 
greatest tendency to weaken the constitution 
of the. plant is the growing of it on the same 
soil for a number of years in succession. In 
large gardens, however, or even those of 
moderate extent, it, is possible to, select a 
fresh place every year, so that at least a con¬ 
siderable number of years may elapse before 
they are again sown on, the same ground. 
The exhibits at Earl’s Court, both in 
numbers', the size of the blooms, and the 
colour of the flowers;, gave no indication of 
weakness. No doubt the rainj in June were 
of material service, and, in any case, the 
Sweet Pea, is a plant that very soon recovers 
itself, even, if it, suffers for a week or two, 
owing to cold weather or other causes early 
in the season. The ground must be main¬ 
tained in a damp condition, and in the south 
of England, at least, the production of seed 
must be prevented to a, great extent if a, suc¬ 
cession of bloom is, to be kept up. 
The. special: classification class, bears a cer¬ 
tain amount of interest, as. showing the effect 
of the classification carried out by the society 
and its being put" into operation by the ex¬ 
hibitors. "VVe doubt very much, however, 
whether it is possible to always fix upon the 
finest variety in each respective colour. 
These varieties will vary in different soils 
and under different climatic conditions. An¬ 
other element, comes into play—namely, the 
skill of the cultivator, not only in the culti¬ 
vation of his flowers', but- in the skill and 
tasteful manner in which he arranges the 
bunches on the exhibition table. 
After passing through the whole of the ex¬ 
hibits, we noted that one exhibitor carried off 
the lion’s share of the first prizes. These 
successes seemed to be chiefly due to the 
method of staging the flowers in a bold yet 
elegant manner with the use of leaves, and 
even the tips of the stems. It was left open 
to the exhibitors to use Sweet Pea foliage 
practically in any manner they liked, but 
they were confined to that additional form of 
ornamentation in certain, classes. The other 
exhibitors who were equally at liberty to use 
Sweet Pea foliage confined themselves to a 
few leaves, or seemed to dispense with them 
altogether. In any case, the leaves, when 
used, were mostly hidden at the base of the 
flower-stalks, and left the flowers to, form 
simply a uniform mass of colour, unrelieved 
