1002 PISUM. [CLASS XVIT, ORDER II. 
GENUS XXII. PI'SUM.—Linn. Pea. 
Nat. Ord. Papiniona’cEx. LInn. 
Gen. Cran. Calyx of five foliaccous unequal segments. Stamens 
diadelphous. Veawillum large, reflexed. Style compressed, keeled, 
villous on the upper side. Legume of one cell, oblong, com- 
pressed, many seeded. Seeds roundish, with a roundish hilum.— 
Name from the Celtic pis, a pea. 
1. P. mariti’mum, Linn. (Fig. 1166.) Sea Pea. Stem angular ; 
peduncles many flowered; leaves with four pair of ovate entire 
leaflets ; stipules as large as the leaflets, cordato-hastate. 
English Botany, t. 1046.—English Flora, vol. iii. p. 269.—Lindley, 
Synopsis, p. 83.—Lathyrus maritimus, Big.—Hooker, British Flora, 
ed. 4. vol. i. p. 270. 
Root with long creeping underground stems, the whole plant 
smooth, of a glaucous hue. Stem procumbent, angular, somewhat 
compressed, zigzag, leafy, simple, about a foot long, mostly pinkish, 
with a glaucous hue. Leaves alternate, the common footstalk flat- 
tened above, long, tapering, and terminating in a branched tendril, 
leaflets mostly in four pairs, opposite or aiternate, ovate, acute, entire, 
veiny. Stipules nearly as large as the leaflets, triangular, arrow- 
shaped, entire or toothed at the base. Inflorescence axillary racemose 
clusters of numerous flowers, elevated on an angular peduncle, as 
long as the leaves. Calyx cup-shaped, with unequal leafy teeth, 
ovate, acute, the two upper ones widest, and more widely separated 
than the others. Corolla large, purple, beautifully variegated with 
crimson veins, the vexillum large, notched, somewhat reflexed, and 
near the base on each side is a white protuberance, the claw concave, 
the wings and keel mostly of a more pinky colour than the standard. 
Legume linear oblong, oblique. Seeds six or eight. 
Habitat.—The pebbly sea coast in the South of England ; Lincoln- 
shire, Suffolk, Castlemain, County of Kerry, Iveland, Shetland —Dr. 
M‘Nab. 
Perennial ; flowering in July. 
The Sea Pea, according to the tale still told in Suffolk, sprang up 
spontaneously in the year 1555, during a time of great scarcity ; but 
their miraculous appearance is not credited either by Stowe or 
Camden, as these historians supposed them to have been cast on 
shore from the cargo of some wrecked vessel. It is, however, much 
more likely that they have grown there indigenously, and were only 
brought into notice by the scarcity of food, and their resemblance to 
the common pea would attract the attention of the hungry wanderer. 
The well known Garden Pea, of which there are in cultivation 
numerous kinds, as the Charlton, the Marrow-fat, the Prussian- 
blue, and the Sugar-pea, are all varieties of the P. "sativum. The 
