THE PEA-WEEVIL--_BRUCHUS PISI_ Peas are held in high esteem by mankind.

From remote ages man has endeavoured, by careful culture, to produce larger, tenderer, and sweeter varieties.

Of an adaptable character, under careful treatment the plant has evolved in a docile fashion, and has ended by giving us what the ambition of the gardener desired.

To-day we have gone far beyond the yield of the Varrons and Columelles, and further still beyond the original pea; from the wild seeds confided to the soil by the first man who thought to scratch up the surface of the earth, perhaps with the half-jaw of a cave-bear, whose powerful canine tooth would serve him as a ploughshare! Where is it, this original pea, in the world of spontaneous vegetation?
Our own country has nothing resembling it.

Is it to be found elsewhere?
On this point botany is silent, or replies only with vague probabilities.
We find the same ignorance elsewhere on the subject of the majority of our alimentary vegetables.