348 CULINARY PLANTS. Chap. IX. 



In the pea itself we have every tint between almost pure white, 

 brown, yellow, and intense green; in the varieties of the sugar peas 

 we have these same tints, together with red passing through fine 

 purple into a dark chocolate tint. These colours are either uniform 

 or distributed in dots, striae, or moss-like marks; they depeud 

 in some cases on the colour of the cotyledons seen through the 

 skin, and in other cases on the outer coats of the pea itself. In 

 the different varieties, the pods contain, according to Mr. Gordon, 

 from eleven or twelve to only four or five peas. The largest peas 

 are nearly twice as much in diameter as the smallest ; and the 

 latter are not always borne by the most dwarfed kinds. Peas differ 

 much in shape, being smooth and spherical, smooth and oblong, 

 nearly oval in the Queen of the Dwarfs, and nearly cubical and 

 crumpled in many of the larger kinds. 



With respect to the value of the differences between the chief 

 varieties, it cannot be doubted that, if one of the tall Sugar-peas, 

 with purple flowers, thin-skinned pods of an extraordinary shape, 

 including large, dark-purple peas, grew wild by the side of the 

 lowly Queen of the Dwarfs, with white flowers, greyish-green, rounded 

 leaves, scimitar-like pods, containing oblong, smooth, pale-coloured 

 peas, which became mature at a different season : or by the side 

 of one of the gigantic sorts, like the Champion of England, with 

 leaves of great size, pointed pods, and large, green, crumpled, 

 almost cubical peas, — all three kinds would be ranked as distinct 

 species. 



Andrew Knight 85 has observed that the varieties of peas keep 

 very true, because they are not crossed by insects. As far as the 

 fact of keeping true is concerned, I hear from Mr. Masters of 

 Canterbury, well known as the originator of several new kinds, 

 that certain varieties have remained constant for a considerable 

 time, — for instance, Knight's Blue Dwarf, which came out about 

 the year 1820. 86 But the greater number of varieties have a 

 singularly short existence : thus Loudon remarks 87 that " sorts 

 which were highly approved in 1821, are now, in 1833, nowhere to 

 be found ;" and on comparing the lists of 1833 with those of 1855, 

 I find that nearly all the varieties have changed. Mr. Masters 

 informs me that the nature of the soil causes some varieties to Jose 

 their character. As with other plants, certain varieties can be 

 propagated truly, whilst others show a determined tendency to 

 vary ; thus two peas differing in shape, one round and the other 

 wrinkled, were found by Mr. Masters within the same pod, but the 

 plants raised from the wrinkled kind always evinced a strong 

 tendency to produce round peas. Mr. Masters also raised from a 

 plant of another variety four distinct sub-varieties, which bore blue 

 and round, white and round, blue and wrinkled, and white and 



" 5 ' Phil. Tract.' 1799, p. 196. 87 'Encyclopaedia of Gardening,' p 



86 ' Gardener's Magazine,' vol. i., 823. 

 1826, p. 153. 



