45 



PEA.-PISUM. 



Natural order, Papilionacece. A genus of the 

 Diadelphia Decandria class. 



This pulse was called by the Greeks Tlicrov, 

 from Pisa, (a town of Elis,) where peas 

 anciently grew in great plenty. 



The English name is evidently a corrup- 

 tion of the Latin, as Tusser (who wrote in 

 the reign of Queen Mary) calls it Peason, 

 and Gerard spells it in the same manner, in 

 the succeeding reign. In the time of Charles 

 the First, Dr. Philemon Holland spells it 

 Pease/ since which it has been abbreviated 

 into Pea. 



Linnaeus enumerates four species, and 

 Miller six ; Tournefort counts twenty-two, 

 and Boerhaave mentions twenty-six species 

 of peas, the varieties of which are now, like 

 most other plants, so greatly increased, that 

 it would be uninteresting to go through a 



