STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 443 



Indians. In 1690, Bancroft ' says Spanish peas were grown by the Indians of Mexico, 

 and, in 1775, Romans^ says green peas were obtained the year round at Mobile, 

 Alabama. In 1779, Gen. Sullivan's expedition against the Indians of western New 

 York destroyed the growing peas of the Indians who occupied the territory near 

 Geneva.' 



If we trace the antiquity of the various forms which include varieties, we find the 

 varieties noted are innumerable and occur with white and green seed, with smooth and 

 with wrinldhd seed, with seed black-spotted at the hiltmi, with large and small seed, as 

 well as with plants of large and small aspects, dwarf, trailing, and tall plants, and those with 

 edible pods. 



White and Green Peas. Lyte, in his edition of Dodonaeus, 1586, mentions the trailing 

 pea, or what Vilmorin classifies as the half-dwarf, as having round seed, of color sometimes 

 white, sometimes green. 



Smooth Seeded. Dodonaeus, in his Frumentorum, 1566, describes this form under 

 Pisum minus, a tall pea, called in Germany erweyssen; in Brabant, erwiten; in France, 

 pots; by the Greeks, ochron; the pods containing eight to ten round peas of a yellojv color 

 at first, then green. This pea was called in England, Middle Peason, in 1591.^ 



Wrinkled Seed. The first certain mention of wrinkled seed is by Tragus in 1552, 

 under Phaseolus. These are also recorded in Belgian and German gardens by Dodonaeus 

 in his Frumentorum, 1566, under Pisum majus, the dry seed being angular, uneven, of a 

 white color in some varieties and of a sordid color in others. He calls them roomsche 

 erwiten, groote erwiten, stock erwiten, and the plant he says does not differ from his Pisum 

 minus and indeed he uses the same figure for the two. Pena and Lobel,* 1570, describe 

 the same pea as in Belgian and English gardens, under the name Pisum angulomm 

 hortorum quadratum Plinii, with seed of a ferruginous and reddish color. Lobel,' 1591, 

 figures the seed, using the name Pisum quadratum, and it seems to be the Great Peason, 

 Garden Peason, or Branch Peason of Lyte in 1586, as he gives Dodonaeus' common 

 names as synonyms. In 1686, Ray' describes this class \mder the name Rouncival and 

 refers to Gerarde's picttire of Pisum majus, or Rowncivall Pease, in 1597, as being the 

 same. This word Rouncival, in white and green varieties, was used by McMahon * in 

 1806, and Rouncivals by Gardiner and Hepburn ' in 1818 and Thorburn in 1828. The 

 first good description of the seed is, however, in 1708, when Lisle '" calls it honey-combed 

 or pitted. Knight, a nurseryman of Bedfordshire, before 1726,'' did much for the 



' Bancroft, H. H. Native Races 1:652. 1875. 



' Romans Nat. Hist. Fla. 1:115. 1 775. 



' Conover, G. S. Early Hist. Geneva 47. 1879. 



* Lobel /con. 2:66 and index. 1591. 

 ' Pena and Lobel ^dners. 396. 1570. 



Lobel /con. 2:66 and index. 1591. 

 ' Ray Hist. PI. 892. 1686. 



McMahon, B. Amer. Card. Cat. 582, 1806. 



' Gardiner and Hepburn Amer. Card. 59. 181 8; Thorb. Cai 1828 

 " Lisle ^i6. 169. 1757. 

 " Townsend Seedsman 2. 1726. 



