444 STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



improvement of the pea and sent out several wrinkled varieties. Up to Knight's time 

 the wrinkled peas do not seem to have been in general esteem. The Knight pea, the 

 seed rough, uneven, and shrivelled, the plant tall, was in American gardens in 182 1,' and 

 a number of Knight's peas are under cultivation at present. 



Black-eyed Peas. These are mentioned as an old sort by Townsend' in 1726 and 

 are now grown under the name of Black-eyed Marrowfat. 



Dwarf Peas. These are mentioned by Toumefort ' in 1 700 and are referred by him 

 to 1665. There is no earlier distinct reference. 



Half-Dwarfs. These are the ordinary trailing peas as mentioned by the earlier 

 botanies, as, for instance, the Pisum minus of Camerarius, 1586. 



Tall Peas. These are the forms described by the early botanies as requiring sticking, 

 as the Pisum majus of Camerarius, 1596, the Pisum of Fuchsius, 1542, and Phasioli or 

 faselen of Tragus, 1552. 



Edible- Podded or Sugar Peas. The pods and peas of the large, climbing pea, as also 

 the green pods of the trailing form, are recorded as eaten by Ruellius * in 1536, and this 

 manner of eating is recorded by later authors. We now have two forms, those with straight 

 and those with contorted pods. The first of these is figured by Gerarde,* 1597 ; is described 

 by Ray * in 1 686 and Toumefort in 1 700. The second form is mentioned by Worlidge ' 

 in 1683 as the Sugar pease with crooked pods, by Ray ' as Sickle pease. In the Jardinier 

 Frangais, 1651, Bonnefonds describes them as the Dutch pea and adds that imtil lately 

 they were very rare. Roquefort says they were introduced into France by the French 

 ambassador in Holland about 1600.' In 1806, McMahon includes three kinds among 

 American esculents. 



Number of Varieties. About 1683, Meager "> names 9 kinds in English culture; in 1 765 

 Stevenson," 34 kinds; in 1783, Bryant '^ names 14; in 1806, McMahon" has 22 varieties; 

 Thorburn's Calendar, 1821, contains 11 sorts, and this seed catalog of 1828 has 24 sorts; 

 in 1883, Vilmorin describes 149; in the report of the New York Agricultural Experiment 

 Station for 1884, 93 varieties are described in f\ill. 



Pithecolobium bigeminum Mart. Leguminosae. soap-bark tree. 



East Indies and Malay. The tree has long, twisted fruit, sweet to the taste but 



' Cobbett, W. Amer. Card. 154. 1846. 

 ' Townsend Seedsman 2. 1726. 

 ' Toumefort Inst. 394. 1719. 



* Ruellius Nat. Stir p. 439. 1536. 

 'Gerarde, J. Herb. 1045. 1597. 

 "Ray Hist. PL 891. 1686. 



' Worlidge, J. Syst. Hort. 197. 1683. 



* Ray Hist. PI. 891. 1686. 

 ' Card. Chron. -ji. 1843. 



' Meager Eng. Card. 89. 1683. 



" Stevenson Card. Kal. 90. 1765. 



" Bryant Fl. Diet. 305. 1783. 



" McMahon, B. Amer. Card. Col. 582. 1806. 



