BULLETIN 46, HAWAII EXPERIMENT STATION. 
cipal varieties are recognized. The variety now known at the 
station as No. 218 (probably C. indicus fiavus) produces rather small 
seed similar to that of the Iron or Clay cowpea (PL I, fig. 1). It is 
a heavy seed bearer and very much liked by Porto Ricans as food, 
either as green peas, or as dry-shelled peas, which are prepared very 
much the same as cowpeas are in the Southern States. Station 
variety No. 219 (probably C. indicus bicolor) has yellow flowers 
tinged with red (PL I, fig. 2). These are in direct contrast to the 
pure yellow flowers borne by No. 218, and the pods are streaked 
or blotched with red on a green background. The seeds are light 
gray and faintly speckled. They are also somewhat larger and more 
spherical than the solid red seeds of variety No. 218. The main 
economic agricultural distinction, however, as now recognized, is 
that No. 218 is early maturing and very heavy seeding, yielding a 
heavy crop of seeds within seven or eight months from the time of 
planting, but attaining in the second year a height of only 3 or 7 
feet. On the other hand, variety No. 219 does not begin to yield its 
maximum crop of seed until the second year, but since it is heavily 
foliaged and attains a height of from 6 to 10 feet, it is valuable as a 
temporary windbreak as well as for forage and green manuring. 
Special reference should be made to the root system of the pigeon 
pea. The plant is furnished with a long taproot and many branch- 
ing lateral roots that are abundantly supplied with large clusters 
of nitrogen-storing nodules. These nodules in some instances ex- 
ceed the number found on any other of the many legumes studied at 
this station. No case has come under observation where the seed of 
pigeon peas required artificial inoculation. The root nodules seem 
to be present naturally and without exception. 
The pigeon pea shows considerable tendency to cross-pollinate 
when several varieties are grown together. This results in the forma- 
tion of numerous crosses showing a greater or less variation in char- 
acters. Comparatively few of these appear to be constant, although 
several superior types have been established and are new being 
propagated with a view to wider distribution. While only slightly 
variable within the old-established varieties, such as that known as 
No. 218, careful selective breeding has established a superior and very 
uniform strain of an early maturing, heavy seeding type which the 
station has designated "New Era." A field of 5 acres of this 
strain is being grown for seed. 
Alonzo Gartley, of Honolulu, called attention to four well-estab- 
lished varieties of the pigeon pea, which he designates as (1) the 
Oahu type (apparently station variety No. 218 before its pres- 
ent improvement) ; the Maui type (apparently station variety No. 
219) ; (3) the Hawaii type (apparently the small-seeded India va- 
riety which was first introduced by the experiment station of the 
