GARDEN PEAS. 



258 



in the "Gardeners' Magazine" for 1826 I find an "Historical 

 Notice of two varieties of the Garden Pea," by T. H. Masters, Eden 

 Nursery, Stoke Newington ; one being Masters' Imperial Marrow, 

 raised by Mr. W. Masters, of Canterbury, a hardy green Marrow- 

 fat Pea, 5 feet high. 



In the year 1836 LawsOn's "Agricultural Manual " describes 

 " Knight's Dwarf White Wrinkled Marrow as producing pods in 

 pairs, from two and a half to three and a half inches long, well 

 filled and terminating abruptly at both ends ; the Peas on an 

 average about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, flattened and 

 very much wrinkled ; colour white and sometimes of a greenish 

 tinge ; height 3 feet. 



" Knight's Tall White Wrinkled Marrowfat : Pods larger and 

 rather more bent than the last; Peas exactly similar; height 

 7 feet. 



" Knight's Improved White Wrinkled Marrow : Pods similar 

 to those of the Tall and Dwarf variety, but much sweeter and 

 more prolific. 



" Knight's Dwarf Green Wrinkled Marrowfat : Pods in 

 pairs, 3 inches long by f inch broad, flattish and very slightly 

 bent ; the Peas, which are of a light bluish-green, differ only 

 from the White Marrow in colour ; height 3 feet. Medium 

 prolific. 



" Knight's Tall Green Marrowfat : Similar in shape and colour 

 to the last-named variety ; height 7 feet. Very prolific." 



These Peas of Knight's, the Tall White and Tall Green, 

 were no doubt the parents of the British Queen and Ne Plus 

 Ultra, and the Dwarf Green and Dwarf White of the Alliance and 

 Climax types, names which were first catalogued in 1840-50. 



I believe I am correct in stating that a gardener named 

 Fairbeard, in the district of Sittingbourne, cross-fertilised some 

 Peas, and found in the same pod both Eound-seeded and Wrinkled 

 varieties. One of the former was distributed as Champion of 

 England, and one of the latter as Harrison's Glory. 



Dwarf Knight's Marrow Pea was also raised by a gentleman's 

 gardener in the vicinity of Sittingbourne. It is nearly the same 

 height as the Blue Prussian, but in all other respects— even to 

 the shrivelled appearance of the seed — it resembles the very excel- 

 lent Pea raised by the indefatigable President of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, Mr. T. A. Knight. 



