toothsome salad of your dinner courses. This common waste-land weed, 
Lacluca scariola, is not at first sight a very prepossessing forbear, and 
many a gardener would look in vain for resemblances to our cultivated 
lettuces. But to the botanist the mature plants of the wild and cultivated 
forms are very similar, and the differences which the epicurean and the 
gardener see are only minor and insignificant ones. Especially are these 
differences decreased when one contrasts a well grown plant of the wild 
lettuce with a somewhat poorly grown Romaine lettuce. Further, Pro- 
fessor Durst of the University of Illinois has made crosses between the 
wild and cultivated types, thus forging another link in the chain of evi- 
dence proving their close relationship. Although native to certain 
temperate portions of Eurasia, this weed has become common in most 
civilized countries. The botanist Boissier, mentions a wild variety with 
crinkled leaves, which came from the mountains of western Asia. As to 
varieties, three are said to have been cultivated 2,000 years or more ago 
by the Greeks, while now 100 or more distinct varieties are common, of 
which the illustration shows 42 of the most important. The kings of 
Persia had lettuce salad on their tables in 300 B. C. The Moors of Spain 
grew several types, among them the Romaine. In fact, all ot our present 
day types — the head, the Romaine, the curly loose leaved, the oak leaved 
and others — seem to have been well known in Europe preceding the middle 
ages. 
From the kinds sold in our markets, one would never guess that peas 
exist in distinct varieties to the number of five hundred or more. These 
various kinds are grown in almost every temperate region of the world, 
including the Abyssinian plateau and the desert oases of Turkestan in 
western China. They differ from one another in seed color, shape, tex- 
ture, sugar content, size; in number of peas per pod, in number of pods 
per plant (4-400 or more) ; in time of blooming; in time of maturing; 
in shape, size (1-5.5 inches), color (purple, canary yellow, green), texture 
of pod; in shape, size, color (red, pink, white), and number of flowers; 
in height of plant (6 inches to 10 feet) ; in shape, size and color of 
leaves ; in number of branches and in the presence or absence of tendrils. 
Some varieties have bloomed, ripened their seed and died before others 
have reached the flowering stage. Some varieties will endure heat, others 
will endure more cold. Some varieties will mature seed where other varie- 
ties will be an absolute failure. Some varieties have pods which are used 
like string beans, while others have a pod that would be as edible as dry 
corn husks. Such edible podded varieties are common in our Chinese 
markets. Most of these types probably were known to the Romans. The 
possible exception is the wrinkled-seeded peas, which by some authorities 
are said to have been discovered and introduced by the pioneer horti- 
culturist, Thomas Knight, about a century ago. Perhaps this form 
occurred as a mutation in his experimental cultures, and realizing its 
value, he saved it. The edible podded peas were introduced into France 
from Holland about 1600 and soon took society’s fancy. “The subject 
of peas continues to absorb all others,” writes Madame de Maintenon in 
1696, “the anxiety to eat them, the pleasure of having eaten them, and 
