The Field and Garden Vegetables of America Part 98

If planted May 1, the variety will blossom the last of June, and pods for the table may be plucked about the 15th of July.

Though comparatively late, it is one of the best of the more recently introduced sorts, and well deserving of general cultivation. When the pods are gathered as fast as they become fit for use, the plants will continue to put forth new blossoms, and form new pods for an extraordinary length of time; in favorable seasons, often supplying the table for five or six weeks.

It is very tender and sugary, and little, if at all, inferior to the Champion of England.

In common with most of the colored pease, the ripe seeds, when grown in this country, are much paler than those of foreign production; and, when long cultivated in the climate of the United States, the blue or green is frequently changed to pale-blue or yellowish-green, and often ultimately becomes nearly cream-white.

KNIGHT'S DWARF BLUE MARROW.

A dwarfish sub-variety of Knight's Marrows, with wrinkled, blue seeds.

KNIGHT'S DWARF GREEN MARROW.

Knight's Dwarf Green Wrinkled.

Plant about three feet high; pods in pairs, three inches long, three-fourths of an inch wide, flattish, and slightly bent. The ripe pease are of a light bluish-green color. It differs from the foregoing princ.i.p.ally in the height of the plant, but also to some extent in the form of the pods.

KNIGHT'S DWARF WHITE MARROW. _Law._

Knight's Dwarf White Wrinkled Marrow.

Plant three feet high; pods in pairs, three inches long, three-fourths of an inch wide, straight, or nearly so, well filled, and terminating abruptly at both ends; pea, on an average, about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, flattened, and very much wrinkled; color white, and sometimes of a greenish tinge. It is a few days earlier than the Dwarf Green.

KNIGHT'S TALL BLUE MARROW.

A sub-variety of Knight's Tall Marrows, with blue, wrinkled, and indented seeds. It resembles the Tall White and Tall Green Marrows.

KNIGHT'S TALL GREEN MARROW. _Law._ _Thomp._

Plant from six to seven feet in height, of strong growth; pods large, broad, and well filled; the seed, when ripe, is green, and much wrinkled or indented.

If planted the first of May, the variety will blossom towards the last of June, and supply the table the middle of July.

The peas are exceedingly tender and sugary; the skin also is very thin.

"From their remarkably wrinkled appearance, together with the peculiar sweetness which they all possess, Knight's Marrows may be said to form a distinct cla.s.s of garden-pease; possessing qualities which, together with their general productiveness, render them a valuable acquisition, both to cultivators and consumers."

If planted not less than six feet apart, these pease will bear most abundantly from the ground to the top: they also yield their pods in succession, and are the best for late crops.

KNIGHT'S TALL WHITE MARROW.

Knight's Tall White Wrinkled Marrow.

Height and general character of the plant similar to Knight's Tall Green Marrow. Pods in pairs. The ripe seed is white. Very productive and excellent.

MATCHLESS MARROW. _Cot. Gard._

This is a good marrow-pea, but now surpa.s.sed by the improved varieties of the Early Green Marrow. It possesses no qualities superior to that variety, and is not so early. The plant grows from five to six feet in height; and the pods contain about seven large peas, which are closely compressed together.

MILFORD MARROW. _Cot. Gard._

The plant is of a strong and robust habit of growth, always with a single stem, attaining the height of four and a half or five feet, and producing from twelve to sixteen pods, which are almost always in pairs, three inches and three-quarters long, and three-quarters of an inch wide. They do not become broad-backed, thick, or fleshy, but rather shrivelled, and contain from six to seven very large peas, which are roundish and somewhat compressed, half an inch long, nearly the same broad, and nine-twentieths thick.

Its season is near that of Bellamy's Early Green Marrow; if planted May 1, blossoming June 28, and being fit for plucking about the middle of July.

MISSOURI MARROW.

Missouri Marrowfat.

Plant three feet and a half or four feet high, strong and vigorous, generally simple, but sometimes divided into branches; pods single and in pairs, three inches long, wrinkled on the surface as they ripen, nearly straight, and containing about six peas, rather closely set together. When ripe, the pea is similar to the Dwarf Marrow in form, but is larger, paler, more wrinkled, and much more regular in size.

Plants from seed sown May 1 were in blossom the 30th of June, and pods were gathered for use the 14th of July. It is a few days later than Fairbeard's Champion of England, and nearly of the season of the Dwarf Marrowfat, of which it is probably but an improved or sub-variety.

It is of American origin, very productive, of good quality, and well deserving of cultivation.

NE PLUS ULTRA. _Cot. Gard._

Jay's Conqueror.

This is comparatively a recent variety. It belongs to the wrinkled cla.s.s of pease; is as early as Bellamy's Green Marrow; and possesses, both in pod and pea, the same fine, deep, olive-green color.

The plant is of strong and robust habit of growth, six to seven feet high, with a branching stem. It begins to produce pods at two or two and a half feet from the ground; and the number, in all, is from twelve to eighteen. The pods are generally in pairs, three inches and a half long, three-fourths of an inch wide, very plump and full, almost round, slightly curved, and terminate abruptly at the end. Their color is deep, bright-green, and the surface smooth. They contain seven very large peas, each of which is half an inch long, nearly the same broad; and, although they are not so closely packed as to compress each other, they fill the pods well.

When sown the first of May, the variety will blossom the last of June, and afford peas for use the 15th of July.

It is one of the best tall Marrows in cultivation. The ripe seed is mixed white and olive.

n.o.bLE'S EARLY GREEN MARROW. _Cot. Gard._

A sub-variety of Bellamy's Early Green Marrow. It is a much more abundant bearer; producing from eighteen to twenty pods on a plant, which are singularly regular in their size and form.

PRINCE ALBERT.

Early Prince Albert. Early May. Early Kent.

Plant from two and a half to three feet in height, usually without branches; pods generally in pairs, two inches and a half in length, half an inch broad, tapering abruptly at both ends, slightly bent backwards, and well filled; pea, when fully ripe, round, cream-colored, approaching to white about the eye and at the line of the division of the lobes, and measuring about a fourth of an inch in diameter.