Pease; a genus of plants belonging to the diadelphia clas. See Botany Index. The species are,

1. The sativum, or greater garden-pea, whose lower stipules are roundish, indented, with taper foot-stalks, and many flowers on a foot-stalk.

2. The humile, or dwarf pea, with an erect branching stalk, and leaves having two pair of round lobes.

3. The umbellatum, rose or crown-pea, with four pointed acute stipules, and foot-

stalks. stalks bearing many flowers, which terminate the stalks.

4. The maritimum, or sea-pea, with foot-stalks which are plain on their upper side, an angular stalk, arrow-pointed stipulae, and foot-stalks bearing many flowers.

5. The Americanaum, commonly called Cape-Horn pea, with an angular trailing stalk, whose lower leaves are spear-shaped, sharply indented, and those at the top arrow-pointed.

6. The ochrus, with membranaceous running foot-stalks, having two leaves and one flower upon a foot-stalk.

There is a great variety of garden-peas now cultivated in Britain, which are distinguished by gardeners and seedmen, and have their different titles; but as great part of these have been seminal variations, so if they are not very carefully managed, by taking away all those plants which have a tendency to alter before the seeds are formed, they will degenerate into their original state: therefore all those persons who are curious in the choice of their seeds, look carefully over those which they design for seeds at the time when they begin to flower, and draw out all the plants which they dislike from the other. This is what they call roguing their peas; meaning hereby the taking out all the bad plants from the good, that the farina of the former may not impregnate the latter; to prevent which, they always do it before the flowers open. By thus diligently drawing out the bad, referring those which come earliest to flower, they have greatly improved their peas of late years, and are constantly endeavouring to get forwarder varieties; so that it would be to little purpose in this place to attempt giving a particular account of all the varieties now cultivated: we shall therefore only mention the names by which they are commonly known, placing them according to their time of coming to the table, or gathering for use.

The golden hotspur. Nonpareil. The Chartop. Sugar dwarf. The Reading hotspur. Sickle pea. Mutter's hotspur. Marrowfat. Effex hotspur. Rose or crown pea. The dwarf pea. Runcival pea. The sugar pea. Gray pea. Spanish Morotto. Pig pea; with some others.

The English sea-pea is found wild upon the shore in Suffolk and several other counties in England, and is undoubtedly a different species from the common pea.

The fifth species hath a biennial root, which continues two years. This was brought from Cape Horn by Lord Anson's cook, when he passed that cape, where these peas were a great relief to the sailors. It is kept here as a curiosity, but the peas are not so good for eating as the worst sort now cultivated in Britain. It is a low trailing plant; the leaves have two lobes on each foot-stalk: those below are spear-shaped, and sharply indented on their edges; but the upper leaves are small, and arrow-pointed. The flowers are blue, each foot-stalk sustaining four or five flowers; the pods are taper, near three inches long; and the seeds are round, about the size of tares.

The sixth sort is annual. This grows naturally among the corn in Sicily and some parts of Italy, but is here preserved in botanic gardens for the sake of variety. It hath an angular stalk, rising near three feet high; the leaves stand upon winged foot-stalks, each sustaining two oblong lobes. The flowers are of a pale yellow colour, shaped like those of the other sort of pea, but are small, each foot-stalk sustaining one flower; these are succeeded by pods about two inches long, containing five or six roundish seeds, which are a little compressed on their sides. These are by some persons eaten green; but unless they are gathered very young, they are coarse, and at best not so good as the common pea. It may be sown and managed in the same way as the garden pea.

For an account of the method of cultivating the several sorts of garden peas, so as to continue them throughout the season, see Gardening.

The gray and other large winter peas are seldom cultivated in gardens, because they require a great deal of room; they are therefore usually sown in fields. For the proper method of managing them, see Agriculture.

In the Museum Rusticum, vol. i. p. 109, we find the following method of preparing peas for hog-meal, which we shall give in the words of the ingenious farmer who communicated it.

"A few years ago (says he), I had a plentiful crop of peas on a ten acre piece, which lies near my house: when they were full podded and nearly ripe, I had them hooked in the usual manner; but before I could get them in, there came a heavy shower of rain which wetted them through and through; and the dull heavy weather, with frequent showers which followed, prevented their drying for a considerable time.

"I caused the wads to be from time to time turned, to prevent the haulm from rotting; and at length a few days sunshine dried them enough to be mowed; for as they lay hollow, the wind was greatly assistant to the operation.

"Before I got them in, on examining some of the pods, I found that the peas were all sprouted to a considerable length; this was what I had expected, as I gave my crop over for loft, till after a little recollection, as the weather still continued fine, I determined to thresh them in the field.

"This was accordingly done; and the corn, after it was salt and riddled to separate it from the rubbish, was dried on my malt kiln.

"When this operation was over, I began to reflect in what manner I should dispose of my peas, being sensible that they could not be proper for feed, and standing no chance of disposing of them to any advantage in the market.

"At length, as it was then a time of war, and of course there was a great demand for pork for the use of the navy, I determined to buy a considerable number of lean hogs, that I might by their means consume this crop on my own premises, and in that manner make the most of it.

"My expectations were more than answered; for I found, by repeated experience, that three bushels of the peas I have mentioned went nearly as far in fattening the hogs I bought as four bushels got in dry and hard in the manner usually practised.

"This discovery I made several years ago, and it has turned out to my advantage; for since that time I have been quite indifferent as to the weather in which my peas are hooked, being rather better pleased, as far as relates to them, with wet than dry weather;" PIT

ther; but if the weather happens to be dry at the time they are ripe, I always cause as many as I want for feeding my hogs, which are not a few in a year, to be regularly malted in the same manner nearly as my barley: this management has of late succeeded very well with me, and I therefore intend to continue it.

"Besides feeding my hogs with these malted pease, I have often given them to my horses, with which they agree very well, and are heartening food.

"Turkeys will fatten apace on them also, and be fine meat.

"I have applied my malted pease to many other uses, which I have not at present time to enumerate: but were they only used for feeding hogs and horses, it is still worth while to prepare some in this manner every year."

PITCOAL, or STONE-COAL. See COAL, MINERALOGY Index, and COALERY.

The coal-trade is of infinite importance to Great Britain, which never could have arrived at its present commercial eminence without it; and this eminence it will be impossible to retain if coal should ever become scarce. This we trust is not likely to be the case, though Mr Williams expresses great fears for it, and informs us that at Newcastle and in many parts of Scotland, the mines near the sea are already wasted, the first consequence of which must be an enormous rise in the price. See his observations on this subject in his Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom. This author says, that coal was not discovered till between the middle of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries: it is therefore, according to him, 400 years since it was first discovered in Britain, but they have not been in common use for more than 200 years. The same author makes many excellent observations on the appearances and indications of coal, instructions about searching for it, remarks on false and doubtful symptoms of coal; for all which, together with his observations on the different kinds of Scots coal, we shall refer our readers to the work itself; the first part of which, occupying a large proportion of it, is upon the strata of coal, and on the concomitant strata. See GEOLOGY and STRATA of the earth.