27c 
The BRITISH HERBAL. 
SERIES 
I. 
Nathes c/" B r i T A i H. 
Thofe of which one or more fpecies are found naturally wild In this country. 
E N U 
P E A; 
I. 
P 1 S U M. 
THE flower is papilionaceous, and confifts of four petals : the vexillum is very broad, and is 
nipp'd at the top with a point, and turned back : the al^ are fhorter than the vexillum, of a 
roundilh figure, and convergent ; and the carina is compreffed, fiiorter than the ala?, and of the 
form of a half moon. The cup is formed of a fingle piece, divided at the rim into five fegments ; 
of which the two upper ones are broadeft ; and it remains with the pod. This is a large and long 
legume, fomewhac depreffed on the back ; and it contains feveral round feeds. 
The terms ufed in the charader of this and the flowers of the fucceeding genera, will be fami- 
liarly underftood from the defcription of the flower fubjoined for that purpofe to the clallical cha- 
ra£ter. 
DIVISION L 
Sea-Pea. 
Pifum muUiJloritm catde angulato maritmum. 
The root is long and fpreading, and penetrates 
to a great depth : it often runs to five, fix, or 
more feet in length feveral ways at once 1 and is 
of a whitiih colour, and fwcet tafte. 
The ftalk is flender, weak, angulated, and of 
a pale green : it ufiially lies upon the ground, 
and will grow fo to a yard Jii length. 
The leaves are beautifully pinnated : each con- 
fifts of four or five pairs of oval pinnae, and is 
terminated wich a branched tendril inftead of an 
odd leaf : and at the bafe of the rib on the main- 
italk there grow a pair of larger leaves, oblong, 
and pointed at the ends, 
The flowers grow in cluflers, eight or ten to- 
gether, at the extremities of the flalks, and on 
naked footftalks rifing from the bofoms of the 
leaves : they are fmaller than the flowers of the 
common pea ; and are of a pale red, with a tinge 
of bluifli purple in the middle. 
The pods are like thofe of the common pca^ but 
fmaller ; and each contains eight or ten feeds, like 
commonpeas alfo, but lefs. 
It is a native of our fea-coafts, and flowers in 
Auguft. 
Morifon calls it Pifum fpontaneum perenns repcns 
htmile. Ray, Pifum marimcm. 
The peafe of this are as wholefome as thofe 
of the common kind, and are often eaten by 
the poor people in places where they grow in 
plenty. 
This plant had covered the fhores of Suffolk un- 
obferved many ages, wlien, about the prefent 
BRITISH SPECIES. 
feafon two hundred years ago, neccfTity firfl 
fliewed them to our countrymen. 
The perfecutions and barbarities of that hor- 
rible period, under the aufpices of Mary, were 
attended with a year of dearth. While the clergy^ 
under a cruel woman, were reviving ill-made 
laws, and putting what confl:rui5tion they pleafcd 
upon theflatutes of Richards and of Henrys made 
under very different circumfbances; the poor, who 
were lacrihced as hereticks in fome places, were 
perifliing in others by famine. 
Suffolk lay wafl:e more than any other county, 
and the fea-coafl inhabitants were mofl necef- 
fitated of all. Hunger fhewed them what they 
had negledled in their days of plenty ; and they 
were fupported by thoufands upon the fruit of 
this fea-pea^ then ripening in a prodigious abun- 
dance. 
The enthufiafts of that time fuppofed the plant? 
raifed by miracle ; and our venerable Cambden, 
unwilling to call in fupernatural powers, folves 
the difiiculty, by imagining they rofe from peafe 
thrown on the fhore from fome wrecked vefTel. 
But there needs not even this far-fetched thought : 
they were not produced that year; but they had 
been difregarded before. They will grow any 
where on the moif barren beach, penetrating by 
thofe long roots to the better foil. 
This is properly the wild Englifh pea. We 
have obferved before, that we have in the fame 
manner a wild EngUfh cabbage, whofe place of 
growth is alfo on the fea coafl:; but neither of 
thefe is the fource of all the cultivated kinds.- 
There is an infuperable toughnefs in the fea- 
cabbage ; and there is a bittcrnefs in thefe peas-^ 
which, though hunger can pafs over in coarfe 
mouths, no culture can mend. 
D I V I- 
