38 



THE VEGETABLES OF NEW YORK 



from seed raised on the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture test 

 grounds at McMillan, Mich., under the name Bohncn- 

 erbsen, which is the- German for " Bean pea," one of 

 the synonyms of Egg. 



Old descriptions make the vine as tall or tailor than the Tall 

 White ' '. lit as grown lure it was the same height or a 



little shorter, rather strong growing, with a few basal branches and 

 dense foliage; flowered low. 10th 11th node, and lion ., \<i\ good 



if iv-ds. ,>f narrow type in general, but With rounded rather 

 than blunt ends because of failure of the pods to fill well. They 

 averaged only 3 peas -' 6 ; but these were very large, flattened, 

 oval, oblong, egg shaped, or short kidney-bean shaped, attached at 

 ud. The seeds were brownish, or greenish cream, somewhat 

 wrinkled, and showed plainly the black hilum, making a pea too 

 characteristic in shape and marking to be mistaken for any other. 



The variety was pronounced worthless in England 

 75 years ago, tho previously useful as a " poor man's 

 pea." That it has been continued, except as a curiosity, 

 must be ascribed to the different taste of certain con- 

 tinental European peoples, who grow in quantity many 



peas hardly considered edible by the English and 

 Americans. So far as records show, except on trial 

 grounds, the Egg pea has never been grown under that 

 name in America; but the Southern Cultivator in 

 1847 mentions Patagonian, which is synonymous with 

 Egg. 



Black-eyed Marrowfat. Refs. 102 110; Mich 

 Sta. Bui. 131:30. 1896. The application of the descrip- 

 tive name for this type of pea seems to have been more 

 common in the United States than elsewhere; and the 

 particular strain here discussed may have originated 

 in America, tho the Michigan reference says it was 

 introduced from England by Thorburn. 



1 1 is similar to the shorter-vined White Marrow- 

 fats, except for the black eye, smaller size of the seeds 

 and slow maturing. Now used almost exclusively for 

 field culture. Two strains of it grown here varied 

 somewhat in size of seeds sown; but the resultant crops 

 were practically indistinguishable. 



ALASKA GROUP 



General Characteristics. — Alaska peas and others 

 of this group are, in the main, green-seeded Extra 

 Earlies. The slender, unbranched or slightly branched 

 stems of moderate height ; light green to medium green 

 foliage scanty to medium in amount; the four small 

 leaflets, and the moderate-sized, only slightly whitened 

 stipules; the small creamy or greenish white flowers 

 borne at and above the 7th or 8th node; and the short 

 to medium length, round, plump, blunt-ended pods, are 

 so like those of the Extra Earlies that the similarity 

 has led to considerable duplication of synonyms between 

 the two groups. Authorities on the pea, basing their 

 decisions on the varieties in the field, and not knowing, 

 or forgetting, differences in the color of the seeds, have 

 occasionally pronounced Alaska or some other well- 

 known variety in its group identical with other varieties 

 in the Extra Early group, or vice versa. The two groups 

 are alike in season, also, both very early. Sometimes 

 one color of seed, sometimes the other gives the earliest 

 marketable pods; but the peas of Alaska and its allies 

 usually have more of the characteristic " pea " flavor, 

 are sweeter, and perhaps more tender than those of 

 similar cream-seeded types. The green-seeded smooth 

 peas are almost always selected for canning, the cream 

 seeded types, rarely. Neither type, except for mere 

 earliness, is worth growing in private gardens. 



Whether the seeds of the Alaska group be called 

 blue, as they generally are in England, or green, depends 

 quite largely on the eye of the observer; but in some 

 strains the seed coats separate more completely than 

 in others from the underlying green cotyledons; and the 

 intervening partial or complete layer of air " blues " 

 or " whitens " the peas, just as in the cream-seeded 

 types similar differences in the amount of separation 

 lead to distinctly salmon-colored coats adhering quite 

 closely to the orange-colored cotyledons, or to almost 

 white peas where the layer of air shuts out the under- 

 lying color. 



The modern types of Alaska show, also, considerable 

 pitting, even wrinkling, of the seed coat, usually an 

 index of better quality in the peas. This index is not 

 always an accurate one, particularly in the case of 

 crosses, as several canning peas, apparently well wrinkled, 

 are little if any better in quality than the smoother 

 Alaskas. 



History. The connection of Alaska with any of 

 the old named types of peas is not so evident as that of 

 Extra Early with Fulham peas, Hotspurs, Charlton 

 and Early Frame. 



The " green Hastings " mentioned by Parkinson 

 in 1629 seems to have been too tender to cold to have 

 been the ancestor of our very hardy, smooth-skinned, 

 green peas; and the " Rouncivals " too broad -podded 

 and too tall. For more than a century and a half no 

 other pea that could be the source of Alaska seems to 

 be recorded. In 1778 Mawe-Abercrombie mentions 

 " Green nonpariel " which name was later repeated 

 as a synonym of Woodford Green Marrow; and the 

 latter is undoubtedly in the line of descent of Alaska- 

 type peas. Woodford Green Marrow was said to 

 degenerate into Blue Prussian, " from which it evidently 

 was derived;" but whether Blue Prussian was also an 

 ancestor of the original Nonpareil and so a grandparent, 

 many times removed, of Alaska, is unknown. We can 

 find no record of the time of introduction of Blue Prus- 

 sian into England from the Continent, which was 

 undoubtedly its original home. The earliest references 

 speak of it as an " old and popular variety " and it 

 carried many synonyms; so it is quite probable that it 

 came to England at a very early date; and selections 

 from the dwarfer forms of it may well have been devel- 

 oped into Nonpareil. If, however, Blue Prussian was 

 not in England before Nonpareil originated, there must 

 remain a missing link in the chain which connects 

 Alaska with the early English peas; for the order could 

 hardly be reversed, in spite of the apparent succession 



