50 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



The wild leek is bulbous, but under cultivation it produces no bulb ; 

 occasionally, however, it has one by "reversion," probably by 

 growing in a too dry soil. Both Gerard (1597) and Parkinson (1640) 

 figure it as bulbous. An Italian herbalist, C. Durante (1636), figures 

 it with a straight, non-bulbous stem; so perhaps the modern form 

 originated in South Europe. Linnaeus gives Holme Island in the 

 Bristol Channel as a locality. This is where the scarlet paeony is 

 also to be found, both being South European plants. It grows 

 sparingly in the fields of Malta, whence those figured were taken. 

 The cultivated bulbless leek is shown beside them for comparison 

 with the original wild, bulbous plant. 



PEA (Pisum sativum, L.). 



The garden pea is not quite wild, though the field pea is a native 

 of South Europe, from which it was possibly, if not probably, derived. 

 Our earliest allusion to it is the discovery by Heer of peas in the lake- 

 dwellings of the Age of Bronze in Switzerland and in Savoy ; being 

 recognized by the spherical form, like that of the wild field pea. De 

 Candolle says there is no indication of the cultivation of the pea in 

 ancient Egypt or India. He concludes as follows: "The species 

 seems to have existed in Western Asia before it was cultivated. The 

 Aryans introduced it into Europe. It no longer exists in the wild state, 

 and when it occurs half -wild, it is not said to have a modified form so 

 as to approach some other species." The wild pea of South Europe and 

 the cultivated in Egypt have rich crimson " wings," and the flowers 

 are produced singly. The garden pea bears many on one main flower- 

 stalk, perhaps the result of cultivation. The pea was well known to the 

 ancient Greeks and Eomans, Pliny remarking that it cannot stand cold, 

 " Hence in Italy and the more rigorous climates it is sown in spring 

 only." Pliny mentions a variety which appears to correspond with 

 the modern, so-called Mummy pea, which has only a somewhat fasciated 

 stem so that the peduncles are clustered together.* Gerard figures it 

 under the name Pisum umbellatum, " the tufted or Scottish Pease." 

 He says " they are like unto those of the fielde, or of the garden, in 

 each respect ; the difference consisteth onely in that, this plant carieth 

 his flowers in a round tuft or umble. . . . It is not very common. " He 

 figures four kinds. The first is the P. mams, Eowncivall Pease, " The 

 flower of which is white and hath about the middle of it a purple spot. " 

 This appears to correspond with our field pea ; but Gerard calls P. minus 

 " garden and field pease, " only adding, " The fielde pease is so very well 

 knowne to all, that it were a needlesse labour to spende time about the 

 description." Hence he means our garden pea. The third is the 

 " tufted " and the fourth, P. excorticatum , " Pease without skins in the 

 cods." He thus describes it:" They differ not from the precedent, 

 saving that the cods heereof want that tough skinny membrane in the 



* The story that they were derived from the tombs of Egypt is a fiction. 

 No peas have ever been found in them ; as Brugsch Pacha informed me himself 

 jn the Museum at Gezireh, Cairo, 



