GARDEN PEAS, 
239 
Thiselton-Dyer threw out the suggestion that our fruit-growers 
should send periodically specimens of their produce, as it was 
abundantly clear that English-grown fruit was, as a rule, 
infinitely superior to that grown on the Continent, 
“ After a vote of thanks to the President the members dis¬ 
persed to inspect the garden.” 
GARDEN PEAS. 
By Mr. N. N. Sherwood, V.M.H., Master of the Worshipful 
Company of Gardeners. 
[Read July 12, 1898.] 
My purpose in preparing this paper can be stated under two 
heads. First, to give a short sketch of the history and 
development of the garden or cultivated Pea from the earliest 
known date, which will, I hope, supply details and information 
not generally known, and such as can be gleaned only from books 
and records to be found in the British Museum and other old 
libraries. 
Secondly, to trace as far as can be done within a limit 
of time the development of the Culinary Pea, and to show 
something of the great strides made in the improvement of this 
deservedly esteemed vegetable during the last fifty years. 
The Pea, whatever may have been its original form, is a plant 
of very great antiquity. I find that De Candolle in “ Plantes 
Cultivees pour leurs Graines,” about the years 1825-26, writes 
thus :— 
“ Pisum sativum was cultivated by the Greeks at the time of 
Theophrastus, who flourished from about 380 to 400 b.c., and 
was the author of one of the earliest treatises on botany. The 
name Pisum is derived from Pisa, a town of Elis, where Peas 
grew in great plenty. It is difficult to fix the exact site of this 
place, but it was near Olympia, in the N.W. division of the 
Peloponnesus, now the Morea.” The English name is evidently 
a corruption of the Latin. Tusser in 1557, and Gerarde in 1597, 
spelt it Peason. Dr. Holland, in the reign of Charles I., spelt 
it Pease, and it was afterwards abbreviated to its present form. 
