Pea

“ Do you know the wild partridge-pea of the pine barrens, that scatters its seeds with a faint report when the pods are touched? There is in this land a red bud which has burst thundering into crimson bloom, scattering seeds o' death to the eight winds. And every seed breeds a battle, and every root drinks blood! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the parochial garden the pea is one to tease us always with its might-be and might-have-been. If peas are to grow beyond “the kid’s lip, the stag’s antler,” they require the moral support of brush, and brush is something a minister’s family, aided only by a decrepit gardener, cannot always supply. Unsupported by brush, our fair peas lie along the ground, an ever-present disappointment.
Two vegetables have always haunted my mother’s aspirations, in vain. ”

“ Whenever we see blossoms of the sweet-pea type on a tree or pods of the same type as the pea's swinging from the twigs, we may be sure that we are looking at a member of the pod-bearing family, leguminosae, to which herbaceous and woody plants both belong. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The pea is, in fact, here as it stands, a whole embryo plant in a dormant condition, the product, so to speak, of a distinct marriage. More than that, it is a totally new individual, produced by the interaction of separate cells from two pre-existing individual pea-plants. And it is that fact—which it owns in common with every other seed—that gives it illustrative importance as an example of the mode of production of all higher organisms, animal or vegetable. ”

“ Indeed so inconvenient has it become that tall growing peas have gone out of cultivation in many places, and men have wished that some good angel of mercy would bring us a wrinkled pea as sweet and rich as the Champion of England, whose aspirations did not reach so far skyward. ”

“ Now, if you do not pull apart the pea blossom, you find nothing else. But you know that the seed-holding fruit is the object of the flower’s life, and that so this flower is pretty sure to have somewhere either a pistil with its seedbox, or stamens with their dust boxes, or both; for without the seeds of the seedbox, and the pollen of the dust boxes, no fruit can result. ”

“ The garden-pea is almost the finest of vegetables, and there are many kinds—some large, some small, some very sweet, some that grow on tall vines and have to have stakes, and some that grow very short without stakes, and are called dwarfs. ”

“ Must I tell the reader this in plainer prose?—Now, then, is the time to sow the seeds of most of the annual flowering plants; particularly of those which we all know and love—such as Sweet Pea, the most feminine of flowers, that must have a kind hand to tend its youth, and a supporting arm to cling to in its maturity, or it grovels in the dust, and straggles away into an unsightly weed ”

“ Why have plants of the pea tribe, a folding blossom called the "boat," or "keel?"
Because, within that blossom the pea is formed, and the shape of the blossom is exactly suited to that of the pea which is formed therein. The blossom is itself protected by external petals; and when the wind blows, and threatens to destroy the parts upon which the seeds depend, the plants turn their backs to the wind, and shelter the seed.
[Pg 294]
"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise."—Proverbs xi. ”

“ Peas seem to us so much like beans, that perhaps you think the young pea baby comes into the world in the same way as the bean plant; but surely we have nothing here that looks at all like the bean 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This new variety of large podded, handsome Table Pea, introduced by us, jumped at a bound into instantaneous favor all over the United States.
The plants stand from three and a half feet to four feed high, and bear large, long pods, mostly in pairs, which are packed remarkably close with flattened, greenish-white, wrinkled peas, and these, when cooked, are of the finest flavor and color. The weight of the Pea compared to the pod is much greater than usual, producing more shelled peas than any other variety. ”

“ The Everlasting Pea is Lathyrus latifolius, an old favourite in flower-gardens. It is said to yield an abundance of honey to bees, which are remarkably fond of it. In this country the pea has been grown from time immemorial; but its culture seems to have diminished since the more general introduction of herbage, plants, and roots.
GREEN PEAS A LA FRANCAISE. 1134. INGREDIENTS.—2 quarts of green peas, 3 oz. of fresh butter, a bunch of parsley, 6 green onions, flour, a small lump of sugar, 1/2 teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of flour. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Pea, tare, and barley fields, when they are first sown in the spring, and pea and corn fields, after getting in the crops in the autumn, are their especial haunts, though they do not despise turnip leaves and acorns. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the pea, which is a small sphere, it occupies the central part, a limited area which the grub has to reach or perish; in the bean, a generous muffin, it includes the large joint of the two flat seed-lobes. No matter where the big seed is tackled, each larva need but bore straight ahead and it quickly reaches the coveted food. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Nature has given us a planting guide. She tacks her notice on the fruit trees. When those early blooming trees, the peach and the plum, put out their beautiful blossoms the first planting time is on. To be sure the temperature then is a bit low, only about 45 degrees, so the planting is not of the more tender vegetables. Get your seed of beet, carrot, cabbage, cauliflower, endive, kale, lettuce, parsley, parsnip, onion, pea, radish, turnip and spinach. ”

“ So that the crafty husbandman, who possesses a shot gun, frequently gathereth both pea and pigeon. A chalky soil is especially favourable to pea cultivation; and deal sawdust sprinkled well over the rows immediately after the setting of the seed will frustrate the knavish tricks of the field mouse, who also likes peas. ”

“ Let us now look at the ordinary pea plant. Its leaf has four pairs of leaflets and three pairs of tendrils 33 besides the terminal tendril—seven tendrils altogether. The stipules here are also very large—much larger than those of the sweet-pea. But the stem is round and smooth. There are no green outgrowths. Here is a wild pea, which I found to-day, which has no leaves at all. All its leaflets have been turned into tendrils or gripping organs. But look at the enormous stipules it has! They are much bigger than ordinary pea leaves.
A Wild Pea with no Leaves. Young Sweet-Peas have no Tendrils. ”

“ Peas and beans are typical examples (Fig. 232) ; in fact, this character gives name to the pea family,—Leguminosæ. Often the valves of the legume twist forcibly and expel the seeds, throwing them some distance. The word “pod” is sometimes restricted to legumes, but it is better to use it generically for all dehiscent pericarps. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ A pea can be made to dance on a column of air as you sometimes see a rubber ball rising and falling in a fountain of water. Take a piece of a clay pipe about three inches long, and make one end into a little rounded cup, by cutting the clay carefully with a knife or file. Then run two small pins cross-wise through a big, round pea, put the end of one pin in the pipe and hold the pipe in an upright position over your mouth. Blow gently through the pipe and the pea will dance up and down. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The pea is a climbing plant. We put tall sticks in the garden for the peas to climb. They grow from seeds which are dried peas.
2. As they grow, tendrils shoot out and take hold of the sticks. Pretty green leaves grow too. Then come the dainty white flowers.
3. When the flowers wither, they leave little green pods. Inside the pods are little green peas. Peas and pods grow larger each day until ripe.
4. Peas are very good for food. Pigs like the husks. ”