PALESTINE WILD TEA WITH COMMERCIAL TYPES. 129 



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 "Pimm 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 (PI. 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 self-coloured of a shade much resembling magenta (PI. 15. 

 tig. 2 D), and quite different from the blooms of any Peas I had previously 

 grown, thus confirming my conclusion that I 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-coloured 

 and not self-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 I have already men- 

 tioned, is characteristic of varieties. of "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 *. 



* I may here say that Dr. Stapf has very kiudly 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 

 axil?, and has a woolliness in the pod, there appears to be no evidence to show. 



