CHAPTER II. 



LEGUMINOUS PLANTS, OR THE PULSE TRIBE. 



As has been elsewhere stated, plants 

 of this natural order are recorded to 

 have been amongst the first vegetables 

 employed by man as articles of food. 

 The legumes or pods, either in their ear- 

 lier stages of growth, as in the case of the 

 kidney bean, or in their more advanced 

 growth, as the pea and bean, the seeds of 

 which are eaten both in a green and 

 ripened form, are the parts of the plant 

 employed in culinary matters. This very 

 extensive order contains no less than 244 

 genera, and upwards of 2630 species. Of 

 these, the following, with their sub-varie- 

 ties, hold a prominent position in garden 

 culture, viz. : — The Pea, Garden Bean, 

 Kidney, French or Haricot Bean. 



§ 1. — THE PEA. 



Natural Mstory. — The pea {Pisum sativum, 

 L.) belongs to the natural order Leguminosse, 

 subdivision Sarcolobse ; tribe Viciese ; and to 

 the class Diadelphia, and order Decandria, in 

 the Linnsean arrangement. The genus Pisum 

 contains seven species ; three of which are cul- 

 tivated for culinary purposes, besides the varie- 

 ties and sub- varieties of Pisum sativum, whose 

 name is legion — if faith is to be placed in the 

 list of names found in seedsmen's catalogues. 

 Pisum maritimum, a species which is indigenous 

 to some parts of the east coast of England, has 

 in former times been used as an article of food 

 in times of scarcity. The name Pisum is de- 

 rived from the Celtic pis, a pea ; or, according 

 to Philips, from Pisa (a town of Elis), where 

 pease anciently grew in great plenty. The Eng- 

 lish name appears to be a corruption of the 

 Latin. Tusser, who wrote in the time of Queen 

 Mary, and Gerard, soon after him, both wrote 

 if'Peason;" Dr Holland, writing in the time 

 of Charles I., spells it Pease, since abbreviated 

 into Pea. 



The native country of the pea, like that of 

 most of our cultivated esculents, is not now 

 known. Modern catalogues refer it to the south 



of France, and Valmont Bomare distinctly says, 

 " the garden pea was originally from France ;" 

 and Mr Coles, in his History of Plants, says the 

 Fulham pease, which came first out of France, 

 is so called because the grounds about Fulham, 

 "neere London, doe bring them forward soonest." 

 Pease undoubtedly came originally into France, 

 Italy, and Spain, from the East; and although 

 we cannot identify the lentils used in the days 

 of Jacob and Esau with the pea of later times, 

 still, we know they were cultivated by both the 

 Greeks and Romans in the time of Pliny, who 

 informs us that the former sowed their pease in 

 November, but the latter did not plant theirs 

 till spring — and then only in warm places lying 

 well to the sun. " For," says he, " of all things, 

 pease cannot endure cold." 



The time of their introduction into Britain is 

 as uncertain as their native place. That they 

 were cultivated to some extent in the time 

 of Henry VIII. is more than probable, as one 

 variety, the Rouncival — a name continued down 

 to the present day — is mentioned by Tusser, in 

 his "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," 

 who says, — 



" Dig garden, 'stroy mallow, now may you at ease, 

 And set (as a daintie) thy runcival pease ! " 



And that they were then grown much as at pre- 

 sent, would appear from the following line : — 



" Stike plentie of bowes among runcival pease, 

 To clamber thereon, and branch at their ease." 



In the early part of Good Queen Bess's reign, 

 they were, however, less abundant than the 

 above quotation would lead us to suppose. For, 

 as Fuller remarks, they were seldom seen, ex- 

 cept those brought from Holland, and "these 

 were dainties for ladies — they came so far, and 

 cost so dear." 



Green pease appear to have been unknown to 

 our Saxon ancestors ; nor was it until after the 

 Norman Conquest, and the establishment of mo- 

 nastic communities, that we read of such being 

 used. Fosbrooke, in " Brit. Monasticon," says 

 that, amongst other rarities, green pease were 

 provided against midsummer, for the nunnery 

 at Barking in Essex. And in " ArchEeologia," 

 13, 373, early pease are thus directed to be 

 treated : " If one will have pease soone in the 

 year following, such pease are to be sowen in 

 the wane of the moone, at St Andrew's tide 



