HORTICULTURE. 



251 



Owdcn. 



r -. 



peas in boxes placed in any hot- house, and planting 

 them out when two or three inches high. They must 

 ' be handled with care, being very brittle ; but with clue 

 attention, few plants fail ; and it has long been remark- 

 ed, that transplanted peas are much more productive 

 of pods or fruit, than such as remain where they have 

 been sown. 



296. In March and April full crops of later peas are 

 sown. Some of the smaller kinds are the Blue Prus- 

 sian, Dwarf marrowfat, and Spanish dwarf. These, if 

 well earthed up, and if the rows be sufficiently distant 

 from each other, sueceed very well without sticking. 

 To them may be added Leadman's dwarf, which is 

 smal' > of them, while at the same time the 



plant is very prolific, and the pea remarkably sweet. 

 Of the large and Late kinds, the Tall marrowfat, the 

 Green marrowfat, the (irey rouncival, ami the Sugar- 

 pea, have long retained their character; while the Spa- 

 nish nioMtto and Imperial egg pea, are also in good 

 repute, > hardy plants and copious bearers. The 

 Crown pea or Rose pea is well known ; but it is as fre- 

 quently cultivated for ornament as for use : It is re- 

 markable that Parkinson, in his " Paradisus," ascribes 

 to it a Scoti-.h origin. A new white pea raised by Mr 

 Knight must not be omitted. It is sometimes called 

 Knight's marrow pea ; sometimes the Wrinkled pea, the 

 tircunnUnce of the skin of the fruit being wrinkled or 

 contracted, being an obvious mark of distinction. The 

 plant M of luxuriant growth, requiring tall sticks to 

 support it , the pods are large, and the peas are of pe- 

 culiarly excellent flavour when boiled. 



The larger kinds of peas require nearly four feet dis- 

 tance between the rows. They ere frequently hoed, 

 and when about three or four inches high, earth is 

 drawn to the rows, this being found greatly to pro- 

 mote their growth. The sticking or supporting takes 

 place when they are about eight or ten inches high. 

 The sticks are of different heights for the respective 

 kinds ; three feet is enough for the smallest kinds ; the 

 hotspurs and dwarf mail urn fats require about five feet; 

 and the larger sorts seven or eight feet. Sometimes 

 doable rows of pees are sown, and the sticks placed in 

 the middle, the plants being earthed towards the sticks : 

 Or two rows of sticks may be made to serve three rows 

 of peas, the heads of the sticks being inclined towards 

 each other; but in this way the middle row of peas 

 cannot be earthed up or hoed after sticking. Where 

 branches cannot be procured, two lines of strong pack- 

 thread on each side of the raws, form a tolerably good 

 substitute. In some places, in very dry weather, the 

 crops of peas are regularly watered when in flower and 



The small early peas are sweeter and of more de- 

 Ikate flavour than the large kinds. In well 

 gardens, therefore, a small quantity of the 

 sorts is sown every ten days from the middle" of 

 March till the middle of June, choosing for them a 

 moist strong soil, in order to counteract the effects of 

 the summer heat. It ii not reckoned proper to sow 

 peas on land which has been recently manured, as they 

 are, in such situation*, apt to run to haulm : This crop 

 ia seldom sown, therefore, till the second season after 

 dunging, 

 gardens, instead 



sued fur turning over the ground L 

 drill, for sowing, as rmmmmded by Meager so long 

 ago as 1670. 



Among the chief enemies of peas may be mentioned 

 dugs and mice. The former often abound in damp 



>wn, ineretore, till tfte second season after 



In large gardens, and particularly in market 



stead of delving, a slight plough may be 



ming over the ground ; and the one-horse 



situations, or places surrounded by trees. The remedy 

 usually applied, is the spreading of new slaked lime 

 over the surface of the ground, very early in the mom- 

 ing when the slugs are abroad. A simple preventive 

 of the attacks of mice consists in being particularly 

 careful, in sowing the peas, to leave none exposed on 

 the surface ; if the seed be all duly covered, these ani- 

 mals do not seem to be very expert at discovering the 

 rows. 



It is generally thought advisable to change the seed 

 yearly ; few gardeners therefore ripen their own seed. 

 Indeed the professed seed-growers possess superior 

 opportunities for saving the kinds in a genuine state ; 

 and if they be men of judgment and fidelity, it is bet- 

 UT tor the gardener to buy from them, than to trouble 

 himself with saving either the sect's of peas, or of any 

 other garden plants which are apt to degenerate by in- 

 termixture of i<ollen. 



Beaut. 



297. The Beam ( I'icia Faba, Lin.) belongs to the en. 

 same class and order, and natural family, with the pea. 

 It is the Feve de marait of the French. It is perhaps 

 superfluous to mention, that it is an annual plant, ri- 

 sing from two to four feet, with a thick angular stem ; 

 the leaves divided, and without tendrils ; the flower* 

 white, with a black spot in the middle of the win;; : 

 seed-pods thick, long, woolly within, and inclosing the 

 large ovate flatted seeds, for the sake of which the plant 

 is cultivated in gardens. It is a native of the East, 

 bat has been known in this country from the earliest 



itchel 



S!iS. There are two principal kinds of the plant, the 

 garden bean and the field bean : The lir-t only tails to be 

 spoken of here. Of this there are many varieties. 1'he 

 Mazagm is one of the hardiest and best flavoured of 

 the small and early sorts. Maxagan is a Portuguese 

 settlement on the coast of Africa, near the Straits of 

 Gibraltar ; and it is said, that seeds brought from t! 

 afford plants that are more early and more fruitful than 

 those which spring from home-saved seed. The 

 bom is next in point of earliness and fruitfulness ; some 

 indeed consider it as merely the Maxagan ripened in 

 Portugal. The Dnarf-fan or clutter bean is likewise 

 an early varietv, but it is planted chiefly for curiosity : 

 it rises only six or eight inches high ; the branches 

 spread out Like a fan, and the pods are produced in 

 small dusters. The Samhricti bean has been long no- 

 r its fruitfulneas ; the Taker and the broad Spattuh 

 ' cwise great bearers. Of all the Urge kinds, the 

 WimdtoT beam is preferred for the table. When gatlx r- 

 ed young, the seeds are sweet and very agreeable ; when 

 the plant* are allowed room and time, they produce 

 very large seeds, and in tolerable plenty, though they 

 are not accounted liberal bearers. There are several 

 sub-varieties, such as the Broad Windsor, Taylor's 

 Windsor, and the Kentish Windsor. The Long-podded 

 bean rises about three feet high, and is a great bearer, 

 the pods being long and narrow, and closely filled with 

 oblong middle-sixed seeds. This sort is now very 

 much cultivated, and there are several subordinate va- 

 rieties of it, as the Early, the Large, and the Sword 

 Leagued. The Whitt-Uottomtd bean is so called, be- 

 cause the black mark on the wing of the blossom is 

 wanting. The seed is seinitransporent ; when young 

 it has little of the peculiar bean flavour, and is on thu 

 account much esteemed ; it is at the same time a copious 

 burer, and proper for a late crop. It may be men- 



