62 FLORA OF JAMAICA Canavalia 



Stem climbing high, glabrescent. Leaflets 7-13 cm. 1. Racemes to 

 3 dm. and longer, flowering in the upper half. Flowers pendulous, white 

 tinged with red or purplish-violet. Calyx about 1'25-1'5 cm. 1., upper 

 lip emarginate. Corolla, as in C. obtusifolia, nearly 3 cm. 1. Uppermost 

 stamen free at base and slightly adhering to the sheath above. Podl'5- 

 2'5 dm. 1., 2-5-3'5 cm. br., linear-oblong, slightly curved, glabrescent or 

 glabrous. Seeds reddish or white, to 2 cm. 1. 



Experiments seem to show that the food value of this bean for cattle 

 is great, as indicated by Church's analysis (" Food Grains of India "). 

 The tender half-grown pods of a variety, mollis, which grows in India in 

 the Nilghiri hills, are eaten in the same way as French Beans. This 

 species is extensively grown as a cover crop, and soil renovator. 



3. C. altissima Macf. Jam. i. 292 (1837) (excl. syn.) ; stem 

 twining, climbing high; leaflets elliptical or oblong-elliptical, 

 sometimes somewhat obovate, apex blunt, sometimes emarginate, 

 niucronulate, glabrous ; upper lip of calyx shorter than the tube ; 

 standard without auricles; ribs of pod distant (1 cm.) from the 

 margin. Griseb. loc. cit. (Fig. 19.) 



Overlook Bean. 



Port Eoyal and St. John's Hills, Macfadyen \ Distin ! Gosse ! March ! 

 J. P. 988, Morris ! Guava Eidge, 1000 ft. ; near Troy, 2,500 ft., Harris ! 



Stem glabrous. Leaflets 7-9 cm. 1. Racemes to 1 dm. 1., sometimes 

 branched ; peduncle about as long or shorter. Flowers pendulous, white, 

 standard dark-purple. Calyx about 1*25 cm. 1., upper lip entire, some- 

 times reflexed, emarginate. Corolla: standard strongly reflexed, emar- 

 ginate, 2 cm. 1. ; keel about as long as the standard and longer than the 

 wings, and curved in a semicircle. Stamens, uppermost free at base and 

 slightly adhering to the sheath above. Pod about 1*5 dm. L, 2'5 cm. br., 

 linear-oblong, slightly curved, puberulous with adpressed hairs. Seeds 

 black, 1'5 cm. L, or " dirty- white " (Macfadyen). 



20. PHASEOLUS L. 



Herbs, sometimes woody at the base, twining or erect. 

 Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, stipellate ; stipules persistent, 

 ribbed. Flowers clustered at node-like thickenings along the 

 rhachis of a raceme. Bracts generally caducous, stipule-like or 

 very small ; bracteoles often broader, sometimes persistent for 

 long. Calyx campanulate, teeth 4, shorter than the tube. 

 Standard roundish ; keel prolonged into a long beak, forming a 

 complete spiral. Uppermost stamen free, the rest united ; 

 anthers uniform. Style thickened within the beak of the keel 

 and twisted with it, hairy longitudinally on the inside above ; 

 stigma oblique or lateral. Pod compressed or sub-cylindrical, 

 beaked, with a slight amount of tissue between the seeds.* 



* We have transferred the two species, P. peduncularis and P. antil- 

 lanus, to the genus Vigna, as they show no indication of the complete 

 spiral twist of the keel, which seems to be the only character that 

 differentiates the two genera. 



