64 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
gularly globular, and without the conspicuous 
scar that marks the attachment to the pod ; the 
surface is shining and of a greenish yellow color. 
The plant grows to the hight of three or four 
feet, and is hairy in all its parts ; it branches 
freely, and should have space for its proper de- 
Froni the manner in which the pods set upon 
ours we should judge the yield would be very 
large. This pea is deserving the attention of 
cultivators as a fodder crop and for plowing in 
as a fertilizer. As to what the pea is botani- 
cally we are not quite sure ; it does not belong 
finding a hastate one. This plant grows from 
4 to 6 feet high, with square and usually purple 
stems. The leaves vary considerably in shape ; 
the engraving shows a deeply lobed lower 
one. The numerous flower spikes are 3 to 
6 inches long, and clustered at the top of 
I.WtfW U 
THE " JAP AH PEA 
blue vervain.— ( Verbena hastala.) 
velopment. The leaves are three-foliate, upon 
very long stalks. The flowers are very minute, 
yellowish, and borne upon axillary racemes, 
which are sometimes short and again much 
elongated. The pods, of the shape shown in 
the engraving, are flattened and two to four- 
seeded. As to the horticultural value of the 
pea we are unable to give an opinion, as ours 
did not become sufficiently matured before 
frost. Mr. Osment's statement we have quoted 
above. Mr. Johnson, who sent us the seed, 
wrote, " not desirable for table use." Remem- 
bering to have seen the same thing some years 
ago in the garden of a friend near Boston we 
wrote to him for his experience. He writes : 
" They may be delicious to the celestial palate, 
but my wife found them hard to cook and I 
found them hard to eat— never getting soft no 
matter how long they were boiled." Thus far 
we think the weight of evidence is against 
their utility ns a table vegetable. As an agri- 
cultural crop they are highly promising, at least 
for localities where the seasons are sufficiently 
long to mature them. Mr. Johnson speaks 
highly of the wonderfully prolific character of 
the pea, and its excellence as a food for stock. 
It is so much esteemed in some quarters that 
it has received the rather extravagant name of 
"Southern Relief Pea." Mr. Osment claims 
it to have produced 200 bushels to the acre. 
to the proper Pea ( Pimm), but is very near the 
Chinese Soy Pea, and it is probably a form of 
that or a closely related species. The Soy Pea 
(formerly Soja liwpida, but now Glycine Soja) is 
cultivated in China, Japan, and other parts of 
the east, and is used to make the sauce called 
Soy, which was formerly more used than at 
present. We should be glad to hear in relation 
to this plant from our friends, especially in the 
Southern States, whohavetried it under circum- 
stances favorable to its proper development. 
The Blue Vervain. 
In an article upon the garden Verbena, 
printed on another page, it is stated that we 
have several native species. They are generally 
so unlike the cultivated ones in aspect that at 
first sight one would not suspect them to be 
closely related, much less to belong to the same 
genus. Our most common species have their 
flowers, which are small and not showy, dis- 
posed in long and slender spikes, and the 
plants themselves are mostly erect and robust. 
The species here figured is Verbena hastaia ; 
the specific name refers to its halberd-shaped 
or hastate leaves, but it was unfortunately 
chosen as leaves of this kind are not a constant 
character of the plant, and one may sometimes 
look in vain over a number of plants before 
the stem ; they are densely covered with small 
bluish-purple flowers, which gradually open 
from below upwards. A species considerably 
resembling this in general appearance is the 
Nettle-leaved Vervain, V. nrtieifolia, which has 
more slender spikes with white flowers. Both 
these plants are very common in waste places, 
along road-sides, and in neglected fields, and 
may he regarded as weeds, though not very ag- 
gressive ones. The name Verbena is the Latin 
for some sacred herb, and its application to the 
plants now known by the name is not obvious. 
The name Vervain is from the French Verviene. 
The Agriculturist Strawberry. — We 
met this old acquaintance recently at Westport, 
Ct., in the strawberry field of A. S. Nash. No- 
vember 3d we picked several stalks loaded 
with the ripe and green fruit, and many of the 
vines were in blossom. The vines had been 
mulched with sea-weed during the summer, 
and were looking remarkably clean and thrifty. 
The fruit at this untimely season is probably 
owing to the remarkable drouth in July, and 
to the frequent fall rains which the mulch has 
retained; Bea-weed and salt hay take the place 
of straw as a mulch along the shore and an- 
swer equally well. This makes an important 
saving when straw is worth twenty dollars a 
ton, as it is at the East the present season. 
