S40 CULINARY PLANTS. Chap. IX. 



seeds, allied to P. arvense or the field-pea. The varieties of tlie 

 common gcwden-pea are mimcrous, and differ considerably from 

 one another. For comparison I jalanted at the same time forty-one, 

 English and French varieties. They differed greatly in height, — 

 namely from between 6 and 12 inches to 8 feet,**— in manner of 

 growth, and in period of maturity. Some differ in general aspect 

 even while only two or three inches in height. The stems of the 

 Prtcssian pea are much branched. The tall kinds have larger 

 leaves than the dwarf kinds, but not in strict proportion to their 

 height: — Hair's Dicitrf Monu.outh has very large leaves, and the 

 Pois nain hat if, and the moderately tall Phi.^ Prussian, have leaves 

 about two-thirds of the size of the tallest kind. In the Danea-oft 

 the leaflets are rather small and a little pointed ; in the Qneen of 

 Dwarfs rather rounded ; and in the Queen of England broad and 

 large. In these three ])eas the slight differences in the shape of the 

 leaves are accompanied by sliglit differences in colour. In the 

 Pois geant suns parchemin , which bears purple flowers, the leaflets 

 in the young plant are edged with red ; and in all the peas with 

 purple flowers the sti^mles are marked with red. 



In the different varieties, one, two, or several flowers in a small 

 cluster, are borne on the same peduncle ; and this is a difference 

 which is considered of specific value in some of the Leguminosse. 

 In all the varieties the flowers closely resemble each other except 

 in colour and size. They are generally white, sometimes purple, 

 but the colour is inconstant even in the same variety. In ]\'arner's 

 Emperor, which is a tall kind, the flowers are nearly double the 

 size of the Pois nain hatif ; but Hair's Ihvarf Monmouth, which 

 has large leaves, likewise has large flowers. The calyx in the Victoria 

 Marrow is large, and in Bishops Long Pod the sepals are rather 

 narrow. In no other kind is there any difference in the flower. 



The pods and seeds, which with natiiral species afibrd such 

 constant characters, differ greatly in the cultivated varieties of the 

 pea; and these are the valuable, and consequently the selected 

 parts. Sugar peas, or Pois sans parchemin, are remarkable from 

 their thin pods, which, whilst young, are cooked and eaten whole; 

 and in this group, which, according to Mr. Gordon includes eleven 

 sub- varieties, it is the pod which differs most ; thus Lewis's Negro- 

 podded pea has a straight, broad, smooth, and dark-purple pod, 

 with the husk not so thin as in the other kinds; the pod of another 

 variety is extremely bowed; that of the Pois geant it much pointed 

 at the extremity; and in the variety "a grands cosses" the peas 

 are seen through the husk in so conspicuous a manner that the pod, 

 especially when dry, can hardly at first be recognised as that of a pea. 



In the ordinary varieties the pods also differ much in size; — 

 in colour, that of Woodford's Green Marrow being bright-green 



*■* A variety called the Rounciva series), vol. 1., 1835, p. 374, from 

 attains this height, as is stated by Mr. which paper I have taken some facts. 

 Gordon in 'Transact. Hort. Soc.'(2nd 



