The pods are generally in pairs; and the leaves winged, having each about six pairs of leaflets, with a branched tendril at the extremity. At the bases of each of the leaves there is a small stipule, marked with a dark spot.
The principal use of vetches is as provender for horses and cattle. They are grown so early as to allow of being fed off, or cut for this purpose, in sufficient time for turnips to be sown the same year. When the land is to be prepared for a wheat crop it is sometimes customary to plough in the vetches as manure. The seeds afford a grateful food for pigeons.
200. PEAS (Pisum sativum) are a kind of seeds too well known to need any description.
There are several kinds of peas, some of which are cultivated in gardens, and others in fields. The former are principally used for culinary purposes. In the early part of the year, gardeners in the neighbourhood of London raise them on hot-beds. The kind they select for this purpose are the dwarf peas. These are sown about the middle of October in warm borders; and afterwards, towards the end of January, they are removed into the hot-beds. The inducement, of course, is the enormous prices that are paid for the earliest peas brought into the market. The podding or picking of green peas for the London market is also a valuable branch of the business of some farms within a few miles of the metropolis. Many attempts have been made to preserve green peas for use in winter; one of these is by bottling them, and another by drying them in an oven, and afterwards keeping them in paper bags; but none of the modes have been attended with complete success.
Field peas are sown about March or April, and succeed best in light, rich soils. They are generally considered an uncertain crop; but this is owing, in a great degree, to want of due attention to their culture.
In common with most other seeds of this class, peas yield a nutritive food to persons of strong stomachs. When boiled in a fresh or green state, they are both wholesome and agreeable; and, when ripe and ground into meal, they are peculiarly serviceable for the fattening of swine. The flour of peas is not unfrequently mixed by bakers amongst that of wheat for bread; but bread made of this flour alone is heavy and unwholesome. Three parts of rye-flour and one of ground peas are said to yield a palatable and nourishing bread. Peas that are freed from their husks, and split in mills constructed for the purpose, are used for soup. The haulm or straw of field peas, if saved in favourable seasons, affords not only an excellent fodder for working horses, but is also an useful food for horses, cattle, and sheep.
It has been presumed that the everlasting pea, which is commonly grown as an ornamental flower in our gardens, would be an advantageous green food for horses and cattle.
201. LIQUORICE is the root of a perennial plant (Glycyrrhiza glabra), with winged leaves, and purplish butterfly-shaped flowers, which grows wild in the south of Europe, and is cultivated near Pontefract in Yorkshire, Worksop in Nottinghamshire, and Godalming in Surrey, and by many gardeners in the vicinity of London.
The stalks of the liquorice-plant are usually four or five feet high. The leaves are winged, and the leaflets egg-shaped, with an odd one at the extremity. The flowers grow in long spikes from the junction of the leaves and branches. The roots are long, round, tough, of brown colour externally, and yellow within.
The principal use of liquorice is in medicine. It contains much saccharine matter, joined with some portion of mucilage; and is one of the few sweet substances which tend to allay thirst. Liquorice is an excellent medicine in coughs and hoarsenesses. When boiled in a little water, it gives out nearly all its sweetness; and this, when the moisture is evaporated, produces, by different processes, what are called Spanish liquorice, liquorice cakes, liquorice lozenges, and Pontefract cakes. The former of these is used to great extent in the brewing of porter. It is said that more than two hundred tons' weight of it are annually manufactured in Spain, a considerable portion of which is sold to the London brewers for this purpose. Liquorice powder, which is used in medicine, is often adulterated with flour, and probably also with less wholesome articles. The root itself may be employed as stopples for beer or wine bottles.