OEIGIN AND HISTOEY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



Ill 



form of the Linnean species, common in the Mediterranean region 

 (fig. 60) and Algeria. It was well known to the ancients. Pliny 

 observes that the Emperor Nero used to eat leeks and oil to im- 

 prove his voice, and that the best came from Egypt. It is mentioned 

 in Numbers (xi. 5) under a word, cliatsir, meaning "to be green," 

 but as it stands in the text with onions and garlic the leek was 

 probably meant, as with the others it was commonly grown in Egypt. 

 With regard to the cultivation, Pliny tells us " the seed is sown 

 thicker than otherwise. They are cut repeatedly till the bed is quite 

 exhausted. If they are w^anted to bulb before being cut, when 

 they have grown to some size they are transplanted to another bed." 

 The wild leek is bulbous, but under cultivation it produces no bulb ; 

 occasionally, however, it has one by "reversion," probably by 

 growing in a too dry soil. Both Gerard (1597) and Parkinson (1640) 

 figure it as bulbous. An Italian herbalist, C. Durante (1636), figures 

 it with a straight, non-bulbous stem ; so perhaps the modern form 

 originated in South Europe. Linnaeus gives Holme Island in the 

 Bristol Channel as a locality. This is where the scarlet paeony is 

 also to be found, both being South European plants. It grows 

 sparingly in the fields of Malta, whence those figured were taken. 

 The cultivated bulbless leek is shown beside them for comparison 

 with the original wild, bulbous plant. 



Pea {Pisum sativuin, L.). 



The garden pea is not quite wild, though the field pea is a native 

 of South Europe, from which it was possibly, if not probably, derived. 

 Our earliest allusion to it is the discovery by Heer of peas in the lake- 

 dwellings of the Age of Bronze in Switzerland and in Savoy ; being 

 recognized by the spherical form, like that of the wild field pea. De 

 CandoUe says there is no indication of the cultivation of the pea in 

 ancient Egypt or India. He concludes as follows: — "The species 

 seems to have existed in Western Asia before it was cultivated. The 

 Aryans introduced it into Europe. It no longer exists in the wild state, 

 and when it occurs half-wild, it is not said to have a modified form so 

 as to approach some other species." The wild pea of South Europe and 

 the cultivated in Egypt have rich crimson " wings," and the flowers 

 are produced singly. The garden pea bears many on one main flower- 

 stalk, perhaps the result of cultivation. The pea was well known to the 

 ancient Greeks and Eomans, Pliny remarking that it cannot stand cold, 

 " Hence in Italy and the more rigorous climates it is sown in spring 

 only." Phny mentions a variety which appears to correspond with 

 the modern, so-called Mummy pea, which has only a somew^hat fasciated 

 stem so that the peduncles are clustered together."^' Gerard figures it 

 under the name Pisum umhellatum, " the tufted or Scottish Pease." 

 He says " they are like unto those of the fielde, or of the garden, in 



* The story that they were derived from the tombs of Egypt is a fiction. 

 No peas have ever been found in them ; as Brugsch Pacha informed me himself 

 in the Museum at Gezireh, Cairo. 



