78 



THE VEGETABLES OF NEW YORK 



numerous, therefore much smaller. The " Delicates " 

 strain was slightly later than Senator and the Petit 

 Pois strain a full week later, both being quite as 

 productive. 



In 1908 Carter received from the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society an Award of Merit for his Evergreen 

 pea which was not given when the variety 

 was grown in 1925. This is a slightly dwarfer form of 

 Petit Pois Delicatesae with larger and deeper green 

 pods. In 1913. perhaps earlier. Carter listed Giant 

 Delicatesae, which is taller, as prolific as Delicatesse and 

 with much longer pods. These have not been tried here, 

 nor, so far as we know, grown in America, tho Carter 

 maintained an American branch for several years and 

 probably distributed both of them. 



In 1912 Sutton introduced an Improved Petit Pois, 

 with green, wrinkled seeds, sending a sample of the 

 stock to Rice. The pea breeders of that company, 

 by selecting and roguing, built up from this English 

 variety a very uniform strain for canners' use, which 

 was introduced about ten years ago as Rice No. 13. 

 In the hands of other seedsmen somewhat variant strains 

 of this pea have developed. 



It is generally from 2' 4 to 2}i feet tall, with stem and foliage 

 very much like that of Senator, but flowering lower on the stem, 

 about 12th node, producing some paired pods, medium green in 

 color, .!') to 4 inches long, distinctly curved, about as broad as 

 those of Senator and broader than Petit Pois, which are well filled 

 with small peas, grading well when ready to can, of fair color and 

 good quality. In our tests it did not yield as well as Admiral and 

 was a few days later. 



EDIBLE PODDED GROUP 



Edible-podded peas have been known almost from 

 the first record of them, as Sugar peas, tho the peas 

 themselves are little, if any, sweeter than those of 

 cream-seeded Extra Earlies, and contain far less sugar 

 than wrinkled peas. The varieties of the group are used 

 in a way impossible with other kinds; as the pods of 

 these varieties, lack, at all stages of growth, the fibrous, 

 indigestible, inner, parchment-like lining of the valves — 

 the endocarp — which makes the pods of other peas, 

 even when boiled, impossible to masticate or digest. 

 In edible-pod peas the endocarp is lacking, or so reduced 

 in fiber content that the entire pod, with the immature 

 peas, cooks tender and may be used exactly as are the 

 pods of snap beans. Not only is the endocarp reduced or 

 missing, but the mesocarp becomes thickened, fleshy 

 and juicy, giving a " body " to the pod very different 

 from the thin, shell-like structure of the pods of other 

 peas. 



The Edible -podded group of varieties has, it is 

 believed, an earlier history than any other distinct group 

 unless it be Field peas. Ruellius, 1536, wrote of peas of 

 which the fresh pods and peas were eaten, 1 Gerarde in 

 1597 gave a figure of the straight-podded type of Sugar 

 peas, and Worlidge in 1683 pictured the crooked-podded 

 type. Before Worlidge, in 1629, Parkinson mentions 

 Sugar peas, possibly the white-seeded type, and " Pease 

 without skins," which may be the form derived from the 

 Field pea, with colored seeds; and the catalog of Fuller, 

 Tracy, Blackwell, London, 1688, lists Large White, 

 Small White, and Grey Sugar peas. 



Unfortunately for the horticultural systematist, 

 definite names for varieties of Edible-podded peas are 

 few, and the descriptions are so lacking in detail that it 

 is now out of the question to trace the history of the 

 varieties, or to co-ordinate names and synonyms. The 

 scarcity of identifying names in the Edible-pod group 

 does not mean any lack of names or of synonyms; but 

 the designations given to varieties were combinations 

 of descriptive terms ranging from the simplicity of Sugar 

 to such nomenclatural monstrosities as Extra Early 



These may. however, not have been parchment-less pods; 

 possibly be eaten. 



Extremely Dwarf Small-podded Sugar, the combinations 

 being so varied, so involved, and so often repeated with 

 slight change, that only confusion results from collecting 

 them. The situation is still further complicated by the 

 passing of varieties back and forth between the Nether- 

 lands, Belgium, France, Germany, and England, each 

 journey usually adding one or more new names, or syno- 

 nyms. Later, America also contributed to the tangle 

 by originating varieties; and usually followed the old 

 descriptive-adjective style in naming them. 



Two distinct sections of the Edible-podded group 

 can, however, be separated with much certainty, as peas 

 with pods lacking the parchment-like lining developed 

 both from the white-flowered varieties of Pisum sati- 

 vum var. hortense, with cream-colored seeds; and from 

 the red and white or purple and white flowered varieties 

 of the field pea, P. sativum var. arvense, with dark 

 seeds, either self-colored or spotted. Of these two 

 groups, the varieties with light colored flowers and seeds 

 are the more agreeable to English and American palates, 

 tho both types can be eaten in early stages without 

 distaste; but in Continental countries the dark-seeded 

 forms are fully as numerous and the rather rough, wild 

 taste seems not unpleasing to the consumers. Varieties 

 of either type are not very much in demand, except 

 locally, in the United States or England; but are widely 

 used, tho not extensively, in mid-Continental and Scan- 

 dinavian countries. 



Owing to the confusion of names and synonyms, 

 lack of histories, and the variation in descriptions, dates 

 and measurements under different conditions, about all 

 that can be done in arrangement is to place in a sub- 

 group, under some fairly representative descriptive name, 

 those varieties that are of the same approximate height, 

 habit, size of pod, and season, since such varietal names 

 as Alaska, British Queen and Advancer, found in other 

 groups of peas to serve as types, are very few in the 

 Edible-pod group. 



Thickened pod walls characterize the whole group 

 of Edible pod peas, whatever the color of flowers or seeds. 



but merely very young pods of smooth-seeded peas, which could 



