PEAS. 559 
through small nodules on their roots which consist of bacterial 
masses endowed with a remarkable power of fixing the free 
nitrogen of the atmosphere, and of passing it on for the use 
of the plant. Kitchen garden Peas, when cooked in the usual 
way, contain from 12 to 16 per cent of carbohydrates, chiefly 
sugar. “* Hot Grey Pease, and a suck of Bacon,” (tied to a string 
of which the stallkeeper held the other end,) was a popular street 
cry in the London of James the First. The principal proteid 
of the pulses is legumin, or vegetable casein ; indeed, a kind of 
cheese may be actually prepared from beans. Pulse is the 
pottage, or porridge, of this tribe. Some of the proteids of the 
pulses are rich in sulphur, whereby they provoke flatulence 
through sulphuretted hydrogen; but these seeds are poor in 
fat, though thoroughly absorbed as to their flour, or meal, 
within the intestines. Pea soup, if well prepared, and thick, 
contains in each tablespoonful the equivalent in proteids of one 
ounce of meat ; by making this soup with milk instead of water 
the amount of proteid is trebled. But some carbohydrates 
must be added if the purpose is to satisfy therewith all the 
requirements of nutrition. These pulses show a deficiency of 
potash salts compared with their amount of proteids; for 
meeting which lack, it will answer to add just a little bicar- 
bonate of potash to the water in which they are boiled. 
Porridge made from Peas ripens, and sweetens, by being kept 
for little more than a week in a cool place; so that in the 
quaint old lines concerning it there is shown to be embodied 
an instructive truth : 
“Pease porridge hot, Pease porridge cold, 
Pease porridge in the pot nine days old.” 
This maturing takes place on the ensilage principle, and the 
term of nine days is the limit of time before mouldiness begins. 
Peas (Pisum arvense) were known to the ancient Greeks, and 
Romans. Usually the seeds, as contained within the pods, 
are the only edible part ; but the pods themselves of the Sugar 
Pea, and the String Pea are eaten, as in the case of String Beans. 
The seeds, when ripe, and hard, are split for use in soups, or are 
ground into Pease meal. “Yes! yes! madam! I am as like 
the Duc de Richelieu as two Peas: but then they are two old 
withered grey Peas” (Walpole’s letters, 1765). The poet 
Cowper reminds us that :— _ 
“ Dani ice: example rare! 
Heaven blest the pouth, and made him fresh, and fair.” 
