Excerpt from A Book About Sweet Peas, 1909: A Descriptive and Practical Treatise on the Most Charming of All Annual Flowers Giving History, Culture, Uses and Varieties I have made an earnest attempt in this book to show how much of interest, charm and pleasure lie in the Sweet Pea, while giving ample practical information as to its culture. We must not limit our thoughts of great garden flowers to a calculation of how many barrow-loads of manure are required to win a certain silver cup with them. We must take into account the joy which their beauty and perfume bring into our lives, and the uplifting impulses which arise out of a conception of the creative forces which lie enfolded within their petals. In doing this we need not forget the spade and manure. No flower can influence human lives more strongly than the little Sweet Pea. Suitable for culture in the smallest as in the largest of gardens, beautiful alike in form and colour, possessing a delicious odour, it further enchains our interest by the glimpses which Mendelian experiments with it have given us into the half revealed mysteries of the laws which govern the creation of new plants. I hope that the simple verses with which the chapters are introduced will not so far offend purists in prosody as to neutralise the pleasure that other parts of the book may possibly give them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.