PIS • 
6 . PisuM (Qcbrus) petiolis decurrentibus membranaceis 
diphyllis, pedunculis unifloris. Hort. Clift. 370. Pea 
with merabr ancic sues running foot-ftalks , halving two 
leaves and one flower upon a floot-fltalk. Ochrus folio jn- 
tegro capreolos emittente. C. B. P. 34 3 ‘ bV^inged 1 ea 
with an entire leafl fending out tendiils. 
There are a great variety of Garden Peas now culti- 
vated in England, which are diftinguifhed by the gar- 
deners and ieedfmen, and have their different titles ; 
- but as great part of thefe are only feminal variations, 
and if not very carefully managed, by taking away all 
thole plants which have a tendency to alter before the 
feeds are formed, they will degenerate into their ori- 
, ginal ftate, fo that all thofe perfons who are curious in 
the choice of their feeds, look carefully over thofe 
which they defign for feeds at the time when they be- 
gin to flower, and draw out all the plants which they 
diflike from the other. This is what they call roguing 
their Peas, meaning hereby, the taking out all the bad 
plants from the good, that the farina of the former 
may not impregnate the latter •, to prevent which, they 
always do it before the flowers are fully, open •, by 
thus diligently drawing out the bad, and marking 
thofe which come earlieft to flower, they have greatly 
' improved their Peas of late years, and are con dandy 
endeavouring to get forwarder varieties j fo that it 
it would be to little purpofe in this place, to attempt 
o-iving particular botanical titles to each which are 
now cultivated •, therefore I fhall only mention their 
titles by which they are commonly known, placing 
them according to their time of coming to the table, 
or gathering for ufe. 
The Golden Hotfpur. 
The Charlton. 
The Reading Hotfpur. 
Mafters’s Hotfpur. 
Effex Hotfpur. 
The Dwarf Pea. 
The Sugar Pea. 
Spanidi Morotto. 
Nonpariel. 
The Englifh Sea Pea is found wild upon the fhore in 
Suflfex, and feveral other counties in England. This 
•was fir It taken notice of in the year 1555, between Or- 
ford and Aldborough, where it grew upon the heath, 
where nothing, no not Grafs, was ever feen to grow * 
and the poor people being in diftrefs, by reafon of the 
dearth of that year, gathered large quantities of thefe 
Peas, and fo preferved themfelv.es and families. This 
is mentioned by Stowe in his Chronicle, and Camden 
in his Britannia : but they were both miftaken, in ima- 
gining that they were Peas call on fhore by a fhip- 
wreck, feeing they grow in divers other parts of Eng- 
land, and are undoubtedly a different fpecies from the 
common Pea. 
The fifth fort hath a perennial root, which continues 
fome years. This was brought from Cape Horn by 
Lord Anfon’s cook, when he paffed that Cape, where 
thefe Peas were a great relief to the failors. It is kept 
here as a curiofity^ but the Peas are not fo good for 
eating as the work fort now cultivated in England ; it 
is a low trailing plant •, the leaves have two lobes on 
each foot-ftalk, thofe below are fpear-fhaped, and 
fharply indented on their edges, but the upper leaves 
are fmall and arrow-pointed. The flowers are blue, 
each foot-ftalk fuftaining four or five flowers ; the pods 
are taper, near three inches long, and the feeds are 
round, about the fize of Tares. 
The fixth fort is annual ; this grows naturally amongft 
the Corn in Sicily and fome parts of Italy, but is here 
preferved in botanic gardens for the fake of variety. 
It hath an angular ftalk rifing near three feet 
high *, the leaves ftand upon winged foot-ftalks, 
each fuftaining two oblong lobes. The flowers are 
of a pale yellow colour, and flhaped like thofe of 
the other forts of Pea, but are fmall, each foot-ftalk 
fuftaining one flower •, thefe are fucceeded by pods 
about two inches long, containing five or fix round- 
ifh feeds, which are a little compreffed on their fides. 
Thefe are by fome perfons eaten green, but unlefs 
they are gathered very young, they are coarfe, and at 
PIS 
beft not fo good as the common Pea. . It may be 
fown and managed in the Erne way as the Garden Pea, 
I fhall now proceed to let down the method of culti- 
vating the feveral forts of Garden Peas, fo as to conti- 
nue them throughout the feafon. 
It is a common practice with the gardeners near 
London, to raife Peas upon hot-beds, to have them 
very early in the fpring ; in order to which, they fow 
their Peas upon warm borders under walls or hedges, 
about the middle of Odcober ; and when the plants 
come up, they draw the earth up gently to their fterns 
with a hoe, the better to protect them from froft. 
In thefe places they let them remain till the lat- 
ter end of January, or the beginning of Febru- 
ary, if they are preferved from frofts, obferving to 
earth them up from time to time as the plants ad- 
vance in height (for the reafons before laid dovvn) as 
alfo to cover them in very hard froft with Peas-haulm, 
ft raw, or fome other light covering, to preferve them 
from being deftroyed ; then, at the time before-men- 
tioned, they make a hot-bed (in proportion to the 
quantity of Peas intended) which muft be made of 
good hot dung, well prepared and properly mixed to- 
gether, that the heat, may not be too great. The 
dung fhould be laid about three feet thick, or fome- 
what more, according as the beds are made earlier or 
later in the feafon ; when the dung is equally levelled, 
then the earth (which fhould be light and frefh, but 
not over rich) muft be laid on about fix or eight inches 
thick, laying it equally all over the bed. This being 
done, the frames (which fhould be two or two and a half 
feet high on the back fide, and about eighteen inches in 
front) muft be put on, and covered with glaffes i after 
which it fhould remain three or four days, to let the 
fteam of the bed pafs off, before you put the plants 
therein, obferving every day to raife the glaffes to 
give vent for the rifing fteam to pafs off ; then when 
you find the bed of a moderate temperature for heat, 
you fhould, with a trowel, or fome other inftrument, 
take up the plants as carefully as poflible, to preferve 
the earth to the roots, and plant them into the hot-bed 
in rows about two feet afunder •, and the plants fhould 
be fet about an inch diftant from each other in the 
rows, obferving to water and fhade them until they 
have taken root ; after which you muft be careful to 
give them air at all times when the feafon is favour- 
able, otherwife they will draw up very weak, and be 
fubjeft to grow mouldy and decay. You fhould alfo 
draw the earth up to the fhanks of the plants as they 
advance in height, and keep them always clear from 
weeds. The water they fhould have muft be given 
them fparingly, for if they are too much watered it 
will caufe them to grow too rank, and fometimes rot 
off the plants at their fhanks juft above ground. 
When the weather is very hot, you fhould cover the 
glaffes with mats in the heat of the day, to fereen 
them from the violence of the fun, which is then too 
great for them, caufing their leaves to flag, and their 
bloffoms to fall off without producing pods, as will 
alfo the keeping the glaffes too clofe at that feafon. 
But when the plants begin to fruit, they fhould be wa- 
tered oftener, and in greater plenty than before •, for 
by that time the plants will have nearly done grow- 
ing, and the often refrefhing them will occasion their 
producing a greater plenty of fruit. 
The fort of Pea which is generally ufed for this pur- 
pofe is the Dwarf, for all the other forts ramble too 
much to be kept in frames •, the reafon for lowing 
them in the common ground, and afterwards tranf- 
planting them on a hot-bed, Is alfo to check their 
growth, and caufe them to bear in lefs compafs * for 
if the feeds were Town upon a hot-bed, and the plants 
continued thereon, they would produce fuch luxu- 
riant plants as are not to be contained in the frames, 
and would bear but little fruit. 
The next fort of Pea which is fown to fucceed thofe 
on the hot-bed is the Plotfpur, of which there are 
reckoned three or four forts ; as the Golden Hotfpur, 
the Charlton Hotfpur, the Mafters’s Hotfpur, the 
Reading Hotfpur, and fome others, which are very 
little differing from each other, except in their early. 
10 N bearing 
Sugar Dwarf. 
Sickle Pea. 
Marrowfat. 
Dwarf Marrowfat. 
Rofe, or Crown Pea. 
Rouncival Pea. 
Gray Pea. 
Pig Pea, with fome ethers. 
