OBSERVATIONS ON THE GARDEN PEA. 
63 
Horticultural Essays, 
By the Members of the Regent's Park Gardeners' Society. 
A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON TEIE GARDEN PEA. 
By Mr. G. Wyness. 
The garden pea ( Pisum sativum') is one of our most valuable 
culinary legumes, and has been cultivated in this country from 
time immemorial: its native country is unknown, but is gene¬ 
rally referred to the south of Europe; it is a hardy climbing 
annual, with the legumes or pods commonly produced in pairs, 
the seeds contained within which are the part of the plant 
which is used. 
The first object to be attended to, in the cultivation of the 
pea, is the proper preparation of the soil; stiff clay or very 
sandy soil ought to be avoided if possible, but in either of these 
cases, if the means are at hand, the soil ought to be tempered 
by admixing a portion of sand with the clay, or vice versa. 
The soils which are most suitable for all culinary crops are 
those which contain a due mixture of sand, finely pulverised 
clay, and carbonate of lime, with some animal or vegetable 
matter. With respect to carbonate of lime, and animal or 
vegetable matter, they are of great use in the composition of 
soils, as they give absorbent power to the soil without giving 
it tenacity; pulverisation is of the greatest importance in all 
soils, to give ample scope to the production of fibrous roots; 
for without abundance of these no plant will become vigorous, 
whatever may be the richness of the soil in which it is placed: 
the fibrous roots of plants extract the soluble matter of the 
soil, and the quantity taken up, therefore, will not depend 
alone on the quality of the soil, but in a great measure also 
on the number of the absorbing fibres. In proportion as the 
soil is pulverised these fibres are increased, and the greater 
quantity of matter is absorbed ; consequently, the plants become 
more vigorous. 
Water is not only necessary to plants as such, but it is es¬ 
sential to them, by producing an extract from the vegetable 
matter which the soil contains; and unless the soil, by pul¬ 
verisation or otherwise, is so constituted as to retain the 
