pea

PEA, n. [L. pisum.] A plant and its fruit of the genus Pisum, of many varieties. This plant has a papilionaceous flower,and the pericarp is a legume, called in popular language a pod. In the plural, we write peas, for two or more individual seeds, but pease, for an indefinite number in quantity of bulk. We write two,three or four peas, but a bushel of pease. [This practice is arbitrary.]