CALIFORNIA V. COGGESHAI.L.
National rivalry in the production of new varieties of many flowers is hot. The British are still probably the best in delicacy of selection. A delightful account was given me recently of a group of old specialists spending hours on one or two pansy blooms, measuring the exact size and cakaloguing the exact variations of colour and- shape. In certain flowers, such- as pansies, nemesia, Shirley poppies, salpiglossis, we .still excel • the world. The French are great producers of roses—as in the Pernet-Ducher class ; so are the Americans: Perhaps the hottest competition is in sweet-peas. The modern vogue was, of course, started by the appearance of a pea with wide upright standard in Lord Spencer's garden ; but to-day California rivals even the neighbourhood of Coggeshall in Essex in quality, and much excels it, of course, in quantity. A Scottish specialist has just returned from California, where he inspected two thousand acres of roses. Sweet-peas are grown on as large a scale ; and two of the outstanding novel- ties—Pinkie and Sunshine—have a Californian origin.
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