312 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGD0?4. 



nution of peas culture may have taken place in 

 the poorer districts ; but peas are always in con- 

 stant requisition in this country. They are con- 

 sumed in immense quantities as sea-provisions ; 

 they are likewise largely supplied to hospitals, 

 infirmaries, and work-houses, and are in familiar 

 use in every private family. 



The principal varieties of the common pea are 

 the white or yellow, and the gray. Soil and 

 culture have probably produced all the varieties 

 under the two sorts, different as they now are, 

 both in their colours and their qualities, and 

 even in the number of flowers and pods growing 

 from each peduncle. 



Among gray peas, where much attention has 

 not been paid to the purity of the seed, it is not 

 unusual to find several shades of colour, from a 

 deep purple, almost approaching to a black, 

 to a very pale or nearly white hue. In even the 

 same parcel, some seeds are gray, some mottled, 

 and others purple. 



The white and yellow peas are distinguished 

 as garden peas and field peas. The former being 

 the choice sorts, are raised by more careful and 

 expensive cultui-e for the purpose of being eaten 

 green ; the latter, inferior chief!}' on account of 

 the manner of their being raised, are allowed to 

 come to maturity. 



The sub-varieties of the common pea are never- 

 ending. These have obtained their names, some 

 from imaginary qualities, some from the peculiar 

 mode of culture, others from the persons Avho 

 first produced them, and some from more fanci- 

 ful distinctions. Of those no less than twenty- 

 two are enumerated as being objects of garden 

 culture, differing in the colour of the flowers, 

 height of the haulm or stalk, time of coming to 

 maturity, produce of legumes, or size and flavour 

 of the seeds. The varieties are in difi^erent de- 

 grees tender or hardy ; if, then, a due regard be 

 paid to the choice of soil and situation, and the 

 time of sowing most favourable to the respective 

 kinds, the success of the crop may, in a great 

 measure, be commanded. 



The most useful varieties are : 



Dwarf growing Peas — earJi/. 



Early Frame, 

 Early Warwick. 

 Early Charlton. 

 Bishop's Early Dwarf. 

 Dwarf Spanish. 



Tall groicing Peas. 



Tall Marrowfat. 



Knight's Tall Marrowfat. 



Green Imperial. 



Wellington. 



Egg. 



Tall Crooked Sugar. 



The varieties of the garden peas may, there- 

 fore, be divided into early and late. The former 



are distinguished as being more slender in the 

 plant, and less abundant in the crop, but they 

 are more hardy, and can better withstand the 

 cold weather ; while some kinds admit better of 

 being forced, and thus can be produced at the 

 earliest approach of summer, as the grand ve- 

 getable luxury of the season. The late sorts are 

 more vigorous and more productive, both in the 

 number of the pods and the size of the gi-ain ; 

 and as they come to maturity by the natural 

 heat of the season, and in a free change and cir- 

 culation of the air, thej' are more rich and sac- 

 charine. Thus it happens, as is the case with 

 many other articles of human food, that green 

 peas are really of the best quality when they are 

 so cheap that they may be purchased by the 

 people generally. 



The pea g-oes through all the stages of its ve- 

 getation in a very brief period. More than one 

 instance is on record of a crop being obtained 

 from seed matured the same season. Some 

 Spanish dwarf peas were sown in February, and 

 the crop was reaped the first week in July; 

 some of the pods were left to mature their seed, 

 which, when sufficiently ripe, were again com- 

 mitted to the earth on the same piece of ground, 

 and a second crop was reaped on the 27th of 

 September. 



To obtain the very earliest crops, the seeds are 

 sown in a dry soil, about the end of October ; in 

 favourable situations and seasons they stand 

 through the winter, and if the spring be a for- 

 ward one, they may be ready for gathering about 

 the end of May. They are a precarious crop, 

 however, and do not pay the cultivator, unless 

 they are produced so early as to command a very 

 high price. In consequence of the uncertainty 

 of the winter, in places where the demand is such 

 as to bear the expense, the earliest peas are 

 brought forward in hot-beds. 



The graj^, or field pea, so much cultivated in 

 agriculture, is by some considered as a distinct 

 species, though it is obviously a mere variety,'-' 

 not farther removed irom the frame pea than is 

 the blue Prussian, or the crown pea. A dry 

 soil and season are essential for a good crop, un- 

 less the plants can be supported by sticks, hke 

 the garden crops. The seed is chiefly used for 

 feeding pigs, and splitting for soup. In boiling 

 split peas some samples, without reference to va- 

 riety, fall or moulder Aovni freely into pulp, 

 while others continue to maintain their form ; 

 the former are called boilers. This property of 

 boiling depends on the soil. Stiff land, or sandy 

 land, that has been limed or marled, uniformly 

 produces peas that will not melt in boiling, no 

 matter what the variety may be. Peas straw, 

 cut green and dried, is reckoned as nourishing 

 as hay, and is considered as exeellent for sheep. 



* Loudon. 



