PALESTINE WILD PEA WITH COMMERCIAL TYPES. 429 
The most interesting feature, however, was that the stipules and leaflets, 
the latter being very small, were deeply serrated (see fig. 1), a character 
so far found, as I am aware, in no other form of either ** Pisum sativum” 
or * Pisum arvense,” although in some types of Peas there is a slight 
serration in the stipules. 
I was able to bring home several plants and pods of the wild Pea from 
Palestine, and since 1904 I have grown a pure stock from the seeds which 
ripened, and have also made a great number of crosses with various types 
of culinary Peas. 
After bringing home the original plants, I removed the seeds from the 
pods, and was surprised to find that instead of being white, yellow, or green 
as I had hoped, the seed-coats varied from olive-green, mottled with brown, 
to a dark colour (Pl. 17. fig. 9), thus proving that my plant was certainly 
not Pisum sativum, but presumably a form of Pisum arvense. 
The seeds were duly sown in my greenhouse, and I allowed the plants to 
mature under glass. The “ habit” of the plants was much as I had seen it 
in Palestine ; the stems were very slender, but when the flowers opened I 
found they were sel/-colowred of a shade much resembling magenta (PI. 15. 
fig. 2 D), and quite different from the blooms of any Peas I had previously 
erown, thus confirming my conclusion that L was not dealing with a form of 
“Pisum sativum," but more likely with a form of “ Pisum arvense,” even 
though all cultivated varieties of “ Pisum arvense” invariably have bi-eoloured 
and not sel/-coloured flowers, as in this instance. Besides this, although the 
flowers of the Palestine Pea were coloured, there was no colour whatever in 
the axils of the leaves or stems of the plant, which, as L have already men- 
tioned, is characteristic of varieties of 5 Pisum arvense.” Another striking 
character was that the pods of the Palestine Pea were lined inside with 
a white woolly substance similar to that found in the pods of Broad Beans, 
but never seen, so far as I am aware, in any other variety of Pisum *. 
* [ may here say that Dr. Stapf has very kindly investigated the question of the identity 
of the Palestine Pea for me, and examined the various herbarium specimens of Pisum at 
Kew, and is of the opinion that although the Pea I found in Palestine somewhat resembles 
” 
in general characteristics “ Pisum humile” described by Boissier in the “Flora Orientalis, 
p. 623, from the Huleh Plain of Palestine, it appears to differ chiefly in the colour of the 
, 
blooms, which in ** Pisum humile” are said to be * standards dirty lilac” and “ wings dirty 
purple," whilst those of the Pea I found are, as already mentioned, self-coloured and magenta. 
The seed of “ Pisum humile” also is described as being slightly rough, whilst those of the 
one in question are fairly smooth. As to whether “ Pisum humile” lacks the colour in the 
axils, and has a woolliness in the pod, there appears to be no evidence to show. 
