531 
P I S U M. 
PISTY'RUS, in ancient geography, a town in the 
weftern part of Thrace, near Meftras,' in the territory of 
which, according to-Herodotus, was a lake thirty ftadia 
in circuit. 
PISUER'GA, a river of Spain, which rifes in the north 
part of Old Caftile, and runs into the Duero ten miles 
fouth-weft of Valladolid. 
PI'SUM, f [derivation unknown.] The Pea; in 
botany, a genus of the clafs diadelphia, order decandria, 
natural order of papilionaceae or leguminofe. Generic 
characters— Calyx : perianthium one-leafed, five-cleft, 
acute, permanent; the two upper fegments fhorter. 
Corolla: papilionaceous; ftandard very broad, obeordate, 
reflex, emarginate with a point; wings two, roundifn, 
converging, Ihorter than the ftandard; keel comprefled, 
lemilunar, (horter than the wings. Stamina: filaments 
diadelphous: one firnple, fuperior, flat-awl-fliaped; and 
nine awl-fhaped below the middle, united into a cylinder 
which is cloven at top; antherae roundifh. Piftillum : 
germen oblong, comprefled; ftyle afcending, triangular, 
membranaceous, keeled with the fides bent outwards; 
ftigma growing to the upper angle, oblong, viliofe. 
Pericarpium : legume, large, long, roundilh or comprefled 
downwards, with the top acuminate upwards, one- 
celled, two-vnlved. Seeds feveral, globular.— EJfential 
Chaiafter. Style triangular, above keeled, pubefcent; the 
calyx has the two upper fegments ftiorfer. There are 
three fpecies. 
i. Fifum fativum, the common pea: petioles round, 
ftipules rounded at bottom and crenate, peduncles many- 
flowered. Root annual, (lender, fibrous. Stems hollow 
whilft young, brittle, branched, fmooth, weak, climbing 
by terminating tendrils. Leaves abruptly pinnate, com- 
pofed ufually of two pairs of leaflets, which are oval and 
fmooth. See the Botany Plate VI. fig. i 3 . Stipules 
large, furrounding the ftem or branch. Flowers lateral, 
two or three together on long peduncles; corolla white, 
greenifti-white, purple, or variegated. Legumes com¬ 
monly in pairs, about two inches long, of an oblong 
form, fmooth, fwelling at the ftraight future, where the 
feeds are (aliened, flatted next the other future, which 
arches efpecially towards the end. Seeds from five or fix 
to eight or nine, commonly' globular, but in fome va¬ 
rieties irregular or'approaching to a cubic form ; fmooth, 
white, yellow, blue, grey, brown, or greenifh, with a 
fmall oblong umbilicus. The colour of the whole plant 
is glaucous, or hoary green, from a white meal which 
covers it. Linnaeus remarks that the leaflets are con- 
duplicate or doubled together. It is faid to be a native 
of the fouth of Europe. Loureiro informs us that it is 
found in China and Cochin-china, but that it is not 
frequent, and perhaps not indigenous. According to 
Thunberg, it is cultivated in molt provinces of Japan. 
Like other favoured plants, this has many varieties. 
The principal ones are, 
£. P. hortenfe majus, the common marrowfat pea. 
y. P. humile, the dwarf pea. 
£ P. arvenfe frudtu viridi, the green rouncival pea. 
£. P. cortice eduli, the fugar pea. 
£. P. umbellatum, the rofe or crown pea. 
v). P. arvenfe, the field or grey pea: leaflets four on a 
(talk; ftipules ftrongly crenate ; peduncles Angle flowered. 
Native of fields in feveral parts of Europe. Dr. Sibthorp 
found it near Conftar.tinople; and it is often found in 
(ome degree naturalized with us. 
0 . P. fqlvum, the tawny-flowered pea : petioles cy¬ 
lindrical; ftipules rounded at the bafe, (harply toothed; 
two-flowered ; leg'umes lhortened. Gathered by Dr. 
Sibthorp in Afia Minor, probably near Smyrna. Smaller 
than the preceding. Leaflets two or four, ferrated. 
Bafe of the ftipules rounded, dilated, very (harply and 
copioufly toothed. Flowers elegant; their ftandard 
faimon-coloured, veined with crimfon or fcarlet; wings 
of an orange hue; keel of a tawny yellow. Legume 
fcarcely more than an inch long, half elliptical. Seeds 
from three to five. Smith’s Flor. Grace. 
». P. fylveftre. This is faid to be perennial, and to 
have been obferved by Clufius in various parts of 
Hungary and about Vienna, in mountain woods. All 
the other varieties are annual. 
k. Among the varieties enumerated by Parkinfon, in 
his Paradifus, 1629, is “ The early or French peafe, which 
(ome call Fulham peafe, becaufe the ground thereabouts 
bring them fooneft forward for any quantity, although 
fometimes they mifcarry by their hafte and earlinefs.” 
Out of the great variety of garden-peafe cultivated in 
England, Mr. Miller mentions only thofe which are com¬ 
monly known, placing them according to the time in 
which they are gathered for the table: 
l. The Golden Hotfpur. 10. Sugar Dwarf,' 
2. The Charlton. 11. Sickle Pea. 
3. The Reading Hotfpur. 12. Marrowfat. 
4.. Mafters’s Hotfpur. 13. 
5. Efl'ex Hotfpur. 14. 
6. The Dwarf Pea. 15. 
7. The Sugar Pea. 16. 
8. Spanilh Morotto. 17. 
9. Nonpareil. 
Dwarf Marrowfat. 
Rofe, or Crown, Pea. 
Rouncival Pea. 
Grey Pea. 
Pig Pea. 
The Hotfpurs and Haftings have their names from their 
coming to bear early in the feafon. The fix firft varieties 
are of this nature, and, being low growers, require flicks 
of three or four feet only in height; and the dwarf pea 
not fo much. New varieties of thefe are raifed aimoft 
every year, which, becaufe they differ in fome flight par¬ 
ticular, are fold at an advanced price,and have frequently 
the names of the perfons who raifed them, or the place 
where they firft grew. Thefe varieties are not permanent, 
and without the greateft care will loon degenerate. 
Mr. Miller has alfo a perennial pea, which he calls 
Amcricanum , or Cape-Horn-pea, from its having been 
brought by Lord Anfon’s cook, when he palled that 
Cape, where this pea was a great relief to the failors ; but 
it is not fo good for eating as the worft fort cultivated in 
England. It is a low trailing plant; there are two 
leaflets on each foot-llalk ; thole below fpear-fliaped and 
(harply indented on their edges ; but the upper ones 
fmall and arrow-pointed. The flowers are blue, each 
peduncle fuftaining four or five of them. Legumes taper, 
near three inches long. Seeds round, about the fize of 
tares. 
Dr. Dwight, late prefident of Yale-college, in his recent 
Travels in New England and New York, (1823,) fpeaks 
of the fate of the peafe in America in the following terms : 
“Joffelyn obferves, that the peafe in America were the 
bed in the world, and that during his eight years re- 
fidence he never law or heard of one that was worm-eaten. 
The Bruchus pifi, or peafe-beetle, however, has fince 
his time conquered the country. It was firft noticed in 
Pennfylvania. The Swedes, who were the original 
colonifts there, had every man his field of peafe: the 
culture became lefs hopelefs after the legiflature offered 
rewards for deftroying the purple daw, as a maize-thief ; 
and it was difcovered, when too late, that this bird had 
kept down the numbers of an infeft far more injurious 
than itfelf. Kalm, the Linnaean traveller, had very nearly 
introduced them into Sweden. He took home with him 
fome fweet peafe, which were frelh and green when he 
packed them in America; but, on opening them at 
Stockholm, he found them all hollow, and the head of 
an infedl peeping out of each : fome of the beetles even 
crept out, but he haftily (hut the packet. ‘ I own,’ fays 
he, ‘ that when I firft perceived them, I was more 
frightened than I (hould have been at the fight of a viper; 
for I had at once a full view of the whole damage which 
my dear country would have fuffered, if only two or 
three of thefe noxious infefls had efcaped. The pofterity 
of many families, and even the inhabitants of whole pro¬ 
vinces. 
