50 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



Coles informs us in his History of Plants, 

 that " the Fulham pease, which came first 

 out of France, is so called, because the 

 grounds about Fulham neere London doe 

 bring them forward soonest." 



At what exact period the garden pea was 

 first cultivated in England is left to conjec- 

 ture, but it was most probably in the reign of 

 Henry the Eighth; as Tusser has the follow- 

 ing passages in his Five Hundred points of 

 good Husbandry, which was written in the 

 time of Queen Mary. For the month of 

 January he says : 



" Dig garden, stroy mallow, now may ye at ease, 

 and set (as a daintie) thy runcival pease :" 



and in the following month he thus advises 

 the farmer : 



" Go plow in the stubble, for now is the season 



for sowing of fitches, of beanes, and of peason : 

 Sowe runcivals timely, and al that be gray, 

 but sowe not the white til S. Gregorie's day. 



Sowe peason and beans in the wane of the moone, 

 who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soone ; 



That they with the planet may rest and rise, 

 and flourish with bearing, most plentiful wise. 



Both peason and beans sowe afore ye do plow, 

 the sooner ye harrow, the better for you : 



White peason so good, for the purse and the pot, 

 let them be wel used, else wel do ye not. 



