234 Peas and Beans 



tall varieties of both the wrinkled and smooth types. For 

 very early there are many popular strains, as Alaska, 

 Gradus, Thomas Laxton, Surprise, Eclipse, First-of-All, 

 Philadelphia, Daniel O'Rourke, American Wonder, Little 

 Gem, Blue Peter. For late, Marrowfat, Champion of 

 England, Telephone, Telegraph, and Stratagem are pop- 

 ular names. These are intermediate or second-early 

 varieties. Full pods are seen in Fig. 127. 



A race of peas with edible pods, comparable to string 

 beans, is considerably grown abroad but is little known 

 here. These are known as edible-podded, or sugar peas, 

 eaten pods and all, when immature. The Melting Sugar 

 pea is of this kind. These are of the same species as the 

 common pea. 



Other plants are known as peas. The cowpea is one 

 of them,' although properly a bean. This plant is not 

 within the purview of the present volume. 



The Pea Plant 



Pisum. Leguminosce. A half dozen species of annuals and 

 perennials in the Mediterranean region and western Asia. 



P. sativum, Linn. Sp. PI. 727. Gaeden or Culinaey Pea. 

 Smooth glaucous annual, with hypogeal genuination : stems 

 weak and slender, hollow, erect only by means of the tendrils, 

 3 to 6 ft. high : leaves alternate, odd-pinnate, with a pair 

 of leafy veiny stipules clasping the stem ; leaflets 2 to 6 pairs, 

 of which the first 2 or 3 pairs are regular foliage blades and 

 the remainder tendrils ; expanded leaflets oval, oblong, elliptic 

 to nearly circular, sessile, the apex rounded, emarginate or 

 cuspidate, the margins entire, irregularly serrate or toothed; 

 tendril-leaflets simple (not branched) : flowers 1 to 3 ter- 

 minating a long axillary peduncle, white, sometimes violet, 

 papilionaceous ; calyx large and green with 5 deep acute lobes ; 

 corolla about twice the length of the calyx; standard erect 



