278 The B-RITJSH, HE-R- BAL. 
Sisk) Ris wlrs Be Saale 
Natives of BRITAIN. 
Thofe of which one or more fpecies are found naturally wild in this country. 
N’.? UPS I. 
Pe Bip Ay 
Pel St Us aed 
Geek 
HE flower is papilionaceous, and confifts of four petals : the vexillum is very broad, and is 
nipp’d at the top with a point, and turned baek: the alz are fhorter than the vexillum, of a 
roundifh figure, and convergent ; and the carina is comprefied, fhorter than the alz, and of the 
form of a half moon. The cup is formed of a fingle piece, divided at the rim into five fegments 5 
of which the two upper ones are broadeft ; and it remains with the pod. This is a large and long : 
legume, fomewhat deprefied on the back ; and it contains feveral round feeds. 
The terms ufed in the charaéter of this and the flowers of the fucceeding genera, will be fami- 
liarly underftood from the defcription of the flower fubjoined for that purpofe to the claffical cha- 
racter. 
DIVISION I. 
Sea-Pea. 
Pifum multiflorum caule angulato maritimum. 
The root is long and f{preading, and penetrates 
to a great depth: it often runs to five, fix, or 
more feet in length feveral ways at once; and is 
of a whitith colour, and {weet tafte. 
The ftalk is flender, weak, angulated, and of 
a pale green: it ufually lies upon the ground, 
and will grow fo to a yard in length. 
The leaves are beautifully pinnated: each con- 
fifts of four or five pairs of oval pinna, and is 
terminated with a branched tendril inftead of an 
odd leaf: and at the bafe of the rib on the main- 
ftalk there grow a pair of larger leaves, oblong, 
and pointed at the ends. 
The flowers grow in clufters, eight or ten to- 
gether, at the extremities of the ftalks, and on 
_naked footftalks rifing from the bofoms of the 
Jeaves: they are fmaller than the flowers of the 
common pea; and are of a pale red, with a tinge 
of bluifh purple in the middle. 
The pods are like thofe of the common pea, but 
fmaller ; and each contains eight or ten feeds, like 
common peas alfo, but lefs. : 
Ic is a native of our fea-coafts, and flowers in 
Auguft. 
Morifon calls it Pifum fpontaneum perenne repens 
humile. Ray, Pifum marinum. 
The peafe of this are as wholefome as thofe 
of the common kind, and are often eaten by 
the poor people in places where they grow in 
plenty. 
This plant had covered the fhores of Suffolk un- 
obferved many ages, when, about the prefent 
BRI 1S:H SPE CLES. 
feafon two hundred years ago, ‘neceflity firft 
fhewed them to our countrymen. 4 
The perfecutions and barbarities of that hor- 
rible period, under the aufpices of Mary, were 
attended with a year of dearth. While the clergy, 
under a cruel woman, were reviving ili-made 
laws, and putting what conftruétion they pleafed 
upon the ftatutes of Richards and of Henrys made 
under very different circumftances; the poor, who 
were facrificed as hereticks in fome places, were 
perifhing in others by famine. 
Suffolk lay wafte more than any other county, 
and the fea-coaft inhabitants were mof necefe, 
fitated of all. Hunger fhewed them what they 
had neglected in their days of plenty; and they 
were fupported by thoufands upon the fruit of 
this fea-pea, then ripening in a prodigious abun- 
dance. 
The enthufiafts of that time fuppofed the plants 
raifed by miracle ; and our venerable Cambden, 
unwilling to call in fupernatural powers, folves 
the difficulty, by imagining they rofe from peafe 
thrown on the fhore from fome wrecked veflel, 
But there needs not even this far-fetched thought: 
they were not produced that year; but they had 
been difregarded before. They will grow any 
where on the moft barren beach, penetrating by 
thofe long roots to the better foil. 
This is properly the wild Englifh pea. We 
have obferved before, that we have in the fame 
manner a wild Englith cabbage, whofe place of 
| growth is alfo on the fea coaft; but neither of 
thefe is the fource of all the cultivated kinds: 
There is an infuperable toughnefs in the fea- 
cabbage ; and there is a bitternefs in thefe peas, 
which, though hunger can pafs over in coarfe 
mouths, no culture can mend, 
DE Vel= 
