GARDEN PEAS. 



239 



Thiselton-Dyer threw out the suggestion that our fruit-growers 

 should send periodically specimens of their produce, as it was 

 abundantly clear that English-grown fruit was, as a rule, 

 infinitely superior to that grown on the Continent. 



" After a vote of thanks to the President the members dis- 

 persed to inspect the garden." 



GARDEN PEAS. 



By Mr. N. N. Sheewood, V.M.H., Master of the Worshipful 

 Company of Gardeners. 



[Eead July 12, 1898.] 



My purpose in preparing this paper can be stated under two 

 heads. First, to give a short sketch of the history and 

 development of the garden or cultivated Pea from the earliest 

 known date, which will, I hope, supply details and information 

 not generally known, and such as can be gleaned only from books 

 and records to be found in the British Museum and other old 

 libraries. 



Secondly, to trace as far as can be done within a limit 

 of time the development of the Culinary Pea, and to show 

 something of the great strides made in the improvement of this 

 deservedly esteemed vegetable during the last fifty years. 



The Pea, whatever may have been its original form, is a plant 

 of very great antiquity. I find that De Candolle in " Plantes 

 Cultivees pour leurs Graines," about the years 1825-26, writes 

 thus : — 



" Pisum sativum was cultivated by the Greeks at the time of 

 Theophrastus, who flourished from about 380 to 400 B.C., and 

 was the author of one of the earliest treatises on botany. The 

 name Pisum is derived from Pisa, a town of Elis, where Peas 

 grew in great plenty. It is difficult to fix the exact site of this 

 place, but it was near Olympia, in the N.W. division of the 

 Peloponnesus, now the Morea." The English name is evidently 

 a corruption of the Latin. Tusser in 1557, and Gerarde in 1597, 

 spelt it Peason. Dr. Holland, in the reign of Charles I., spelt 

 it Pease, and it was afterwards abbreviated to its present form. 



B 2 



