113 VIC I A. No. 95. 



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1. S. G. Vicia. Pod elongate compressed, seeds glo- 

 bular. 



The Faba is the true Bean of the ancients, and not 

 the Fhaseolus. It is a native of Persia, but has been 

 cultivated in Europe, from the most remote antiquity. It 

 ^ is cultivated also in the United States, the gardens of the 

 North, or fields in the South, and I have seen it become 

 spontaneous there. It is, however, not yet valued as it 

 ought, and not given to horses, maize being used instead. 

 It has many varieties, like all long cultivated plants: 

 the best are hardly known with us. It blossoms in the 

 spring? the flowers are very pretty and sweet scented. 

 The varieties are : 1. Megasperma^ tall plant, with long 

 pods and seeds an inch long. 2. Equina, folioles ovate 

 oblong, seeds elliptical, 3. Turgicla. 4. Obtusifolia^ 

 5. Rubra, with red seeds. 6. Media. 7. Nigra. 8. Ba- 

 cemosa. 9. Odoratissima. It is a valuable plant for 

 farmers ; it grows any where, never fails to give a good 

 crop, an acre may produce 100 bushels of seeds and la 

 tons of fodder. It is food for men and cattle, a delicacy 



when green, ornamental, medical, and improves the land 

 as a manure. 



PROPERTIES. The wjiol^jplant i^ useful, leaves, 

 flowers, and seeds. As a fodder, it is equal to clover ; 

 horses and cattle eat it agreeably, fresh or dry. Buried 

 by the plough, or burned on the ground, it improves it 

 like manure. The flowers are a good cosmetic ; their 

 distilled \vater is fragrant and smoothens the skin. The 

 green unripe seeds are a delicacy, similar to green peas, 

 and as highly valued in Europe j in Italy they are eaten 

 , with salt, or boiled and cooked in fifty ways. They 

 scarce in our markets, although as easily cultivated 

 as peas. When ripe and dry, they become a little flatu- 

 lent, out not more so than other beans j they form then 

 the chief food of the Italian, Spanish and Greek pea^ 

 santry, m soups, mush> olios, cakes, and other dishes : 

 they are also roasted abd. eaten like chesnuts. The 

 Cireeks mix the flour with their black ljread^_jaT de- 

 piiving the seeds of their thick skin, the inside is a ten^ 

 «er farinaceous food. Barley and beans are the chiefi 



n^f I '^^^ ^" ^''^^ ^^^^^' Af"ca and South Europe i 

 oats and mar^^e the substitutes with us, ^re bv no means 



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