PEA. 53 



to flower, peas may be kept two years, but 

 after that time they become very uncertain. 

 Some peas love a light soil, others a rich 

 ground. Peas are a vegetable that requires 

 much nourishment : they thrive best in new 

 earth, but do not prosper so well on manured 

 ground, and will not bear planting succes- 

 sively in the same place, for they will be ob- 

 served to turn yellow and yield but little 

 seed. 



We find the Greeks sowed their peas in 

 November, but the Romans did not plant 

 theirs until the spring, and then, says Pliny, 

 only in warm places lying well to the sun, 

 for of all things (says this author) peas can- 

 not endure cold. What would he have 

 thought of the English, who in this cold 

 climate eat green peas soon after Christmas ? 

 these bear an enormous price, and may justly 

 be deemed a delicacy, fit only for ladies whose 

 lords can afford to feed them with vegetable 

 pearls. Notwithstanding the immense size 

 to which the metropolis has extended itself, 

 and crowded streets now occupying the gar- 

 dens of the last century, yet have the art of 

 horticulture and the industry of the gardener 

 more than kept pace with the increased inha- 

 bitants, and furnished this luxury so plenti- 



