Chap. IX. PEAS. 329 



shape, being smooth and spherical, smooth and oblong, nearly oval in the 

 Queen of Dwarfs, and nearly cubical and crumpled in many of the larger 

 kinds. 



With respect to the value of the differences between the chief varieties, 

 it cannot be doubted that, if one of the tall Sugar-peas, with purple 

 flowers, thin-skinned pods of an extraordinary shape, including large, dark- 

 purple peas, grew wild by the side of the lowly Queen of the Dwarfs, with 

 white flowers, greyish-green, rounded leaves, scimitar-like pods, containing 

 oblong, smooth, pale-coloured peas, which became mature at a different 

 season ; or by the side of one of the gigantic sorts, like the Champion of 

 England, with leaves of great size, pointed pods, and large, green, crumpled, 

 almost cubical peas,— all three kinds would be ranked as indisputably 

 distinct species. 



Andrew Knight 82 has observed that the varieties of peas keep very 

 true, because they are not crossed by insects. As far as the fact of keeping 

 true is concerned, I hear from Mr. Masters of Canterbury, well known as 

 the originator of several new kinds, that certain varieties have remained 

 constant for a considerable time,— for instance, Knight's Blue Dwarf, which 

 came out about the year 1820. 83 But the greater number of varieties 

 have a singularly short existence : thus Loudon remarks 84 that " sorts 

 which were highly approved in 1821, are now, in 1833, nowhere to be 

 found ;" and on comparing the lists of 1833 with those of 1855, 1 find tha 

 nearly all the varieties have changed. Mr. Masters informs me that the 

 nature of the soil causes some varieties to lose their character. As with 

 other plants, certain varieties can be propagated truly, whilst others show 

 a determined tendency to vary ; thus two peas differing in shape, one 

 round and the other wrinkled, were found by Mr. Masters within the same 

 pod, but the plants raised from the wrinkled kind always evinced a strong 

 tendency to produce round peas. Mr. Masters also raised from a plant 

 of another variety four distinct sub-varieties, which bore blue and round, 

 white and round, blue and wrinkled, and white and wrinkled peas; 

 and although he sowed these four varieties separately during several suc- 

 cessive years, each kind always reproduced all four kinds mixed together ! 



With respect to the varieties not naturally intercrossing, I have ascer- 

 tained that the pea, which in this respect differs from some other Legu- 

 minosse, is perfectly fertile without the aid of insects. Yet I have seen 

 humble-bees whilst sucking the nectar depress the keel-petals, and become 

 so thickly dusted with pollen, that some could hardly fail to be left on 

 the stigma of the next flower which was visited. I have made inquiries 

 from several great raisers of seed-peas, and I find that but few sow them 

 separately ; the majority take no precaution ; and it is certain, as I have 

 myself found, that true seed may be saved during at least several gene- 

 rations from distinct varieties growing close together. 83 Under these cir- 

 cumstances, Mr. Fitch raised, as he informs me, one variety for twenty 



s 2 ' Phil. Transact.,' 1799, p. 196. 823. 



83 < Gardener's Magazine,' vol. i, as See Dr Anderson to the same effect 

 1826, p. 153. _ in the ' Bath Soc. Agricultural Papers,' 



84 « Encyclopaedia of Gardening,' p. vol. iv. p. 87. 



