the wild type. With the complete omission of each factor a new colour
type results, and it is difficult to resist the inference that the various
cultivated forms of the sweet pea have arisen from the wild by some process
of this kind. Such a view tallies with what we know of the behaviour of the
wild form when crossed by any of the garden varieties. Wherever such
crossing has been made the form of the hybrid has been that of the wild,
thus supporting the view that the wild contains a complete set of all the
differentiating factors which are to be found in the sweet pea.

Moreover, this view is in harmony with such historical evidence as is to be
gleaned from botanical literature, and from old seedsmen's catalogues. The
wild sweet pea first reached England in 1699, having been sent from Sicily
by the monk Franciscus Cupani as a present to a certain Dr. Uvedale in the
county of Middlesex. Somewhat later we hear of two new varieties, the red
bicolor, or Painted Lady, and the white, each of which may be regarded as
having "sported" from the wild purple by the omission of the purple factor,
or of one of the two colour factors. In 1793 we find a seedsman offering
also what he called black and scarlet varieties. It is probable that these
were our deep purple and Miss Hunt varieties, and that somewhere about this
time the factor for the {83} light wing (L) was dropped out in certain
plants. In 1860 we have evidence that the pale purple or Picotee, and with
it doubtless the Tinged White, had come into existence. This time it was
the factor for intense colour which had dropped out. And so the story goes
on until the present day, and it is now possible to express by the same
simple method the relation of the modern shades, of purple and reds, of
blues and pinks, of hooded and wavy standards, to one another and to the
original wild form. The constitution of many of these has now been worked
out, and to-day it would be a simple though perhaps tedious task to denote
all the different varieties by a series of letters indicating the factors
which they contain, instead of by the present system of calling them after
kings and queens, and famous generals, and ladies more or less well known.

From what we know of the history of the various strains of sweet peas one
thing stands out clearly. The new character does not arise from a
pre-existing variety by any process of gradual selection, conscious or
otherwise. It turns up suddenly complete