Pea (plant)

“ This species is grown in Italy for the same purposes as the White, but more extensively. It is also grown in some parts of the south of France, on poor, dry grounds, for cutting in a green state, and ploughing under as a fertilizer. [Pg 516]
THE PEA. Pisum sativum.
The native country of the Pea, like that of many of our garden vegetables, is unknown. It is a hardy, annual plant; and its cultivation and use as an esculent are almost universal.
To give in detail the various methods of preparing the soil, sowing, culture, gathering, and use, would occupy a volume. ”

“ Ovary.—Superior; one-celled. Style.—Simple and incurved. Stigma.—Simple. Fruit.—A two-valved pod, of which the garden pea is typical.
The Pea family, including its three sub-orders, is one of the most important plant-families known. It is distributed over almost the entire world, and furnishes some of the most valuable products to man. The Judas-tree, the numerous acacias, and the sweet pea, are well known in our gardens; while among our most valuable vegetables are the bean, the pea, and the lentil. The clover and alfalfa are extremely important forage plants. ”

“ This is a large-growing species of elegant growth, and remarkable for the abundance of yellow flowers with which it is literally covered in August. Than this South-European Pea-flower, perhaps not another member of the family is more worthy of culture, the neat, elegant habit of growth and profusion of flowers rendering it a plant of particular interest and beauty. It is quite hardy, thrives in any light soil if well drained, and is readily propagated from seed, which it ripens in abundance. ”

“ No green plant can live without air and sunlight; and, in order to get these, our weak-stemmed sweet-pea has to climb. It clings to its stronger brethren just as the wild peas do in the hedgerow. Now notice how it climbs. The end part of each leaf consists of little gripping organs called tendrils. ”

“ Red, pink, purple, white, and pale yellow. The single varieties are not desirable, and as soon as a seedling plant shows single flowers, pull it up.
Sweet Pea.—This grand flower needs no description. It is one of the plants we must have.
Verbena.—Old, but none the worse for that. A free and constant bloomer, of rich and varied coloring. Habit low and spreading. One of the best plants we have for low beds, under the sitting-room windows. Keep the faded flowers cut off, and at midsummer cut away most of the old branches, and allow the plant to renew itself, as advised in the case of the Petunia. ”

“ Fig. 73.—Flowering branch of Laburnum; st,
2, flower; 3, pistil and stamens; 4, pistil (× 11⁄9) ; 5, standard; w, wings; k, keel; 1, 2, 3, the flower
fruit (× 2⁄3) ; 6, corolla; a, standard; b, wings; c, keel; 7, from different points of view. (× 1⁄2.)
diagram of flower.
The pea family.—Plants of the pea family are found in all quarters of the earth. They are of very diverse size and habit of growth; the laburnum, for example, is a tree; the gorse is a bush; the broad bean has a strong, erect, herbaceous stem; the pea is a weak-stemmed climbing plant ”

“ In the pea and marrow there are many seeds, but there are large numbers of fruits in which we find only one. For example, in plums, cherries, and peaches we have a fleshy outer fruit-case with a stony lining covering over one large seed. Such fruits do not open, for there is only one seed within, and so the fruit is scattered whole. ”

“ The grass pea (L. nissolia, Fig. 32) is also a small species. It lives in meadows and the grassy borders of fields, and has lost altogether, not only the leaves, but also the tendrils. Instead, however, of enlarged stipules, the functions of the leaves are assumed by the leafstalks, which are elongated, flattened, linear, ending in a fine point, and, in fact, so like the leaves of the grasses among which the plant lives that it is almost impossible to distinguish it except when in flower. For a weak plant growing among close grass, a long linear leaf is, perhaps, physically an advantage ”

“ Monkshood is especially poisonous, and its root has been mistaken, with fatal results, for that of horse-radish. It is often noticed that grazing cattle avoid the buttercups in a field. The bitter and disagreeable taste of the leaves is of course a valuable protection to the plant.
18. THE PEA FAMILY.
1. The garden pea.—Notice again the habit of the plant: its compound, net-veined leaves with large stipules, and its method of climbing by tendrils which are modified leaflets. Examine the flower and make out (a) the calyx of five united sepals; (b) the curiously shaped corolla. ”

“ They are without tendrils of any kind. This shows us, I think, that the sweet-pea was at one time a small plant, like its relative the clover. It grew in open places and did not have to struggle for light and air. But, by and by, when strong growing plants took up the soil, it became forced to produce climbing organs or become choked out. And, having turned its leaves into climbing or gripping organs, it made up for the loss of leaves by producing large stipules and green out-growths to stem and leaf. ”

“ You can sow any garden peas as late as December 25, if the ground is in good condition and the temperature not too low. They are grown as a winter crop except when the ground freezes. You would not get as much good for the grove by growing these peas for the market as you would by plowing the whole growth under green, but you certainly will get advantage from the decomposition of the pea straw and of the root growth of the plant. ”

“ The gray, or field pea, called bisallie by the French, is less subject to run into varieties than the garden kinds, and is considered by some, perhaps on that account, to be the wild plant, retaining still a large proportion of its original habit. ”

“ And the word was so used in and after Shakespeare's time, as by Ben Jonson—
"A pill as small as a pease."—Magnetic Lady.
The Squash is the young Pea, before the Peas are formed in it, and the Peascod is the ripe shell of the Pea before it is shelled. [202:1] The garden Pea (Pisum sativum) is the cultivated form of a plant found in the South of Europe, but very much altered by cultivation. It was probably not introduced into England as a garden vegetable long before [203] Shakespeare's time. ”

“ Another spring excitement in the garden is the pea planting, both the sweet peas and what our country folk sometimes call “eatin' peas.” No rivalry is so keen as that between pea-growers. My neighbors and I struggle for supremacy in sweet peas at the flower show in July, and great glory goes to him who gets the first mess of green peas on his table. We have tried sweet-pea sowing in the fall, and it does not work. So now I prepare a trench in October, partially fill it with manure, and cover it with leaves, which I remove at the first hint of warm weather in March. ”

“ In the simpler forms of carpel, the affinity to leaves is still evident, though in forms of pistil made up of a number of carpels this may be very difficult to trace. With the Pea, for instance, we may begin, as presenting a very simple example. Take an oblong leaf like{130} that of a Laurel, and fold it down the mid rib till the two edges are in contact. There is our pea-pod complete. The young seeds, or ovules, are borne in a row along the mid rib, a very usual arrangement. ”

“ Garden-Pea—Pisum sativum, Linnæus.
The pea of our kitchen gardens is more delicate than the field-pea, and suffers from frost and drought. Its natural area, previous to cultivation, was probably more to the south and more restricted. It has not hitherto been found wild, either in Europe or in the west of Asia, whence it is supposed to have come. Bieberstein’s indication of the species in the Crimea is not correct, according to Steven, who was a resident in the country.1649 Perhaps botanists have overlooked its habitation; perhaps the plant has disappeared from its original dwelling ”

“ Plummer’s directions, and the larvæ of the pea-bug will die for want of air. Seeds are ripened best in their own pods or receptacles; and where they ripen nearly at the same time, and do not easily shake out, we hang the whole plant in an airy shed, barn, etc., until winter ”

“ Among the beans planted as fodder, the white-flowered sweet pea grows luxuriantly, sweetening the air. Vetches, geraniums, morning-glories, larkspur, poppies, and other highly colored flowers rush into bloom on the first approach of spring, making the fields look like veritable gardens of the gods. ”

“ First among the worthy annuals come sweet peas, mignonette, nasturtiums, and asters, each one of the four having two out of the three necessary qualifications, and the sweet pea all of them,—fragrance and decorative value for both garden and house. To be sure, the sweet pea, though an annual, must be planted before May if a satisfactory, well-grown hedge with flowers [Pg 82] held on long stems well above the foliage is to be expected, and in certain warm, well-drained soils it is practicable to sow seed the autumn before. ”

“ He can go down a row of peas that are about to set their flat pods swelling to become fat pods and eliminate everything but a stubble of tough butts that have been shorn of their ladylike and smiling greenness. Pea vines in the garden always seem such gentle ladies, clad in a fabric of soft, semitransparent green, nodding and smiling, slender, tall and sweet. But when the woodchuck romps back up the row nothing is to be seen but the smile. ”

“ Sweet peas, of course, are to be sown early and deep, where they are to stand half an inch apart, like garden peas, and then thinned out so that there is not less than an inch between (two is better, but it is usually heartbreaking to pull up so many sturdy pealets) and reënforced by brush or wire trellising. Otherwise I plant the really worthy, or what might be called major annuals, in a seed bed much like that used for the hardy plants, at intervals during the month of May, according to the earliness of the season, and the time they are wanted to bloom. ”

“ It has a beautiful form, grows very rapidly, bears a profusion of beautiful and very fragrant blossoms (pendulous racemes of pea-shaped flowers) , its foliage is singularly pleasing—the young leaves being of a light pea-green, and growing darker with age, so that in the same tree three or four distinct shades of green may be seen; it grows freely in all soils, and is not infested by any worms; its timber is almost as durable as cedar, and in the West, is not subject to the attacks of the borer, as it is in the East. ”

“ The bottoms of this stream are often wide and fertile, on which the wild pea vine grows in abundance. The pea itself is somewhat smaller than that grown in the settlements, and can be used; as vegetable, its flavor being agreeable. ”

“ This is the month for hosts of wild peas and vetches: the purple vetch in New England thickets; the everlasting-pea on Vermont hill-sides; the pink beach-pea and marsh-pea on New Jersey coasts and Western lake shores: the pale purple myrtle-pea climbing over banks by New England road-sides; the blue butterfly-pea, two inches broad, very showy, and found in woods and fields of New York and Pennsylvania. These are all graceful and pretty. ”

“ It is certainly a beautiful hardy perennial, similar to (but of more humble growth) than the everlasting pea, yet must be cautiously introduced on account of its creeping roots, by which it is most readily propagated, rarely ripening its seeds with us. ”

“ About 200 varieties of garden-peas are annually offered by American seedsmen. Wrinkle-seeded peas are generally considered superior in flavor to smooth-seeded peas. Peas thrive best in fairly rich, well-drained, loamy soils. The plants are hardy, withstanding light frosts without injury, though not succeeding well in dry, hot weather. Their wealth of nitrogenous elements makes them valuable fertilizers of soils. Canada and our northern states are the chief sources of the dried peas, and furnish practically all pea-seed. Peas are highly prized as food. ”

“ It is quite touching to see the care and solicitude with which these toilsome peasants will laboriously lay out their bit of garden with fruits or vegetables, making every line almost mathematically regular, planting every pea at a measured distance, or putting a smooth flat pebble under every strawberry on the evenly ridged-up vines. ”

“ In that case, you could use the Dutchman's pipe, [105] which is a fast growing climber having peculiar yellow-brown flowers the shape of a pipe. Though these seeds are only ten cents per packet, the young plants are sold by the nurserymen for fifty cents apiece: so if you grow them yourself you can figure out what a valuable little house you will have!
The everlasting pea is a sprawling, quick grower, having many flowers in a cluster, and blooming in August. It thrives in even the most common soil, and gets better every year. ”

“ In this country, it has been longer cultivated than any other sort; and, in some of the forms of its very numerous sub-varieties, is now to be found in almost every garden. It is hardy, abundant, long-continued in its yield, and of excellent quality. In England, the variety is cultivated in single rows three feet apart. In this country, where the growth of the pea is much less luxuriant, it may be grown in double rows three feet and a half apart, and twelve inches between the single rows. ”