270 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



hortense. As regards the history of the pea, we may state 

 briefly that it was well known to the ancients, amongst 

 whom, especially the Romans, it was highly esteemed and 

 greatly cultivated. As the bean gave a distinctive name 

 to a noble family of the Romans, so did the pea ; hence 

 the Pisani. The cultivation of the pea was doubtless in- 

 troduced into this country by the agency of the Romans ; 

 if not by them, at least by the people of the Low Coun- 

 tries. It has been a highly-esteemed crop for centuries, 

 and, before the introduction of potatoes, formed a very 

 essential part of the food of the people, so that its con- 

 sumption was much greater then than it is now. The 

 plant, botanically described, has the stipulas rounded and 

 crenate at the base ; the stalks, at the base cylindrical, 

 carry several flowers, white in colour generally in the 

 Pisum hortense, or garden pea, but purple generally in the 

 Pisum arvense, or field pea. The root is annual, slender, 

 and fibrous : the stems are hollow in their first stages 

 are not strong, but brittle; they therefore do not stand 

 erect, like beans ; they are terminated by fine curling ten- 

 drils, which take hold of and twine round any firmer sup- 

 porting material near them. The leaves are pinnate, 

 abrupt, composed generally of two pairs of leaflets. The 

 shape of the leaf is elliptical, and the surface smooth and 

 shining. The flowers are lateral, and cluster, two or three 

 together, on long, peduncular stalks or stems. The corolla, 

 as stated above, is either white or purple, and sometimes 

 variegated. The legumes or pods are generally in pairs, 

 about two inches in length, of oblong form, pointed at the 

 end, generally straight, but, in some varieties of the Pisum 

 hortense, curved scimitar fashion. The seeds vary in num- 

 ber from five to nine ; they are of various shapes in 

 some varieties globular or spherical, in some flattened 

 spheres or oblate spheroids ; some approach to the cubical, 

 some to the cylindrical form. The varieties in use for 

 field culture are (1) the Common Grey ; (2) Warwick 

 Grey ; (3) Hastings Grey ; (4) the Dutch or Giant, also 

 known as the Rounceval, Grey ; (5) Grey Maple, Marl- 



