PAZ (LA) DE AYACIrCHO, a t. of Bolivia. South America, capital of a dep. of the same name, about 20 m. from the s. shore of lake Titicaca, is situated on the e. decliv ity of the Andes at an elevation of 12,000 ft. above the sea, on .both sides of a deep ravine, here crossed by nine bridges. The whole city is subdivided into sections by numerous ravines The streets are generally irregular and steep; there are some good public buildings, several educational institutions, a noble cathedral, and many other churches. It is the seat of a bishop and a university. La Paz is the largest city and the principal e•nnmercial emporium of Bolivia—the exports consisting of gold. bark, and other products of the country; and the imports of manufactured goods, the bulk of which comes through Peru. This city, whose original immune was Nuestm Senora de la Paz, was founded in 1548. The name was changed in 1825 to its present form. ;a honor of the national victory of Ayacucho (q.v.). Pop. at latest published census, 76,372, the greater part of which is Indian. Pop, of dep., 475,32.
PEA, Pisum, a genus of plants of the natural order Legutninasce, suborder Papilion acete, closely allied to the genus Lalhyrus (q.v.), from which it differs chiefly in the tri angular style. Two species, supposed to be natives of the s. of Europe and of the east, are. very extensively cultivated for their seeds (peas), which are the best of all kinds of pulse; the COAIIION PEA or GARDEN PEA (P. salitum) in gardens, and the FIELD PEA (P. artenee) in fields; both of them climbing annuals, with pinnate leaves, ovate leaflets, and branching tendrils in place of a terminal leaflet; the garden pea distinguished by having two or several flowers on each flower-stalk, the flowers either red or white, more gener ally white, and the seeds subglobuiar; the field pea having one flower on each flower stalk, the flowers always red, and the seeds angular from crowding and compression in the pod. But it is not improbable that they are truely one species, of which the garden pea has, through cultivation, departed furthest from the original type. Peas have been cultivated in the east from time immemorial, although the ancient Greeks and Romans do not seem to have been acquainted with this kind of pulse, the cultivation of which was apparently introduced into Europe very early in the middle ages; and its cultivation extends from warm climates, as India, even to the Artie regions, the plant being of rapid growth and short life. The seeds of the garden pea are used for culinary purposes both
in it green and in a ripe state; also the green succulent pods of some varieties, known as sugar peas or wyker peas, in which the membrane lining the inside of the pod—parch ment-like in most kinds—is much attenuated. Field peace are used both for feeding cattle and for human food. Ftir the latter purpose, peas are often prepared by being shelled, or deprived of the membrane which covers them, in a particular kind of mill; they are then sold as split peas, and are much. in use for making pea soup. They are also ground into meal, which is used in various ways, chiefly for making a kind of pottage and of unleavened bread. In the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, peas are roasted in order to eating.
There are innumerable varieties both of the field pea and the garden pea, those of the latter being so much the products of horticultural art, that they cannot be preserved without the utmost attention. Some of the kinds of garden peas have long stems, and require for their support stakes of six or eight feet in height; others are of humbler growth; and certain dwarf kinds, preferred as most convenient in many gardens, sue Cued very well without stakes. The largest kinds are sown in rows about four feet asunder. In Britain, garden peas are sown at different times from February to June, in order to secure a supply of green peas dining a considerable part of summer and and in the southern parts of the island they are also sown in the end of autumn, a very little protection being sufficient for them during the winter. Certain small kinds, of rapid growth, known as early peas, are preferred for the first sowings, although less productive than many others. The varieties known as mammoth peas are remark able for their size and tenderness in a green state, but shrivel as they ripen.