
1890.] History of Garden Vegetables. 145 
ever, were not a common vegetable at the close of the 17th cen- 
tury. The author of a life of Colbert, 1695, says: “It is fright- 
ful to see persons sensual enough to purchase green peas at the 
price of 50 crowns per litron.” This kind of pompous expendi- 
ture prevailed much at the French Court, as will be seen by a 
letter of Madame de Maintenon, dated May 10, 1696. “ This 
subject of peas continues to absorb all others,” says she; “the 
anxiety to eat them, the pleasure of having eaten them and the de- 
sire to eat them again, are the three great matters which have been 
discussed by our princes for four days past. Some ladies, even after 
having supped at the Royal table, and well supped too, returning to 
their own homes, at the risk of suffering from indigestion, will 
again eat peas before going to bed. It is both a fashion and a mad- 
ness.”® In England garden peas appear to have been rare in the 
early part of Elizabeth’s reign, as Fuller observes they were seldom 
seen, except those which were brought from Holland, and “ these,” 
says he, “were dainties for ladies, they came so far and cost so 
dear.”” These references may, however, refer to peas out of season, 
but in 1683, Worlidge” says the meaner sort “ have been long ac- 
quainted with our English air and soil, but the sweet and delicate 
sorts of them have been introduced into our gardens only in this 
latter age.” 
I propose, however, to only trace out the antiquity of the var- 
ious forms which include varieties, not the history of the species, 
nor the varieties themselves. The varieties noted are innumer- 
able, and occur with white and green seed, with smooth and with 
wrinkled seed, with seed black spotted at the hilum, with large 
and small seed; as well as with plants with large and small 
aspect; on dwarf, trailing and tall plants, and those with edible 
I. WHITE AND GREEN PEAS. 
Lyte, in his edition of Dodonzus, 1586, mentions the trail- 
ing pea, or what Vilmorin classifies as the half-dwarf, as having 
round seed, of color sometimes white, sometimes green. 
19 Gard. 
Chron., 1843, 
20 Glasspoole. Ag. ae b. 1875, 520. 
21 Syst. Hort. By J. W. Gent., 1683, 197. 
