The Pole Lima Beans. 363 



feet high. In warm countries, it is a bushy plant with little ten- 

 dency to climb. The pods reach a length of ten to fourteen inches, 

 the walls being very hard and dense when ripe. The halves of the 

 pod, when split apart, roll up spirally, often into an almost perfect 

 cylinder. The large white turgid beans, bearing a very prominent 

 brown seed-scar, are packed crosswise the pod, imbedded in a very 

 thin white paper lining. The flowers are small and light-purple, 

 resembling those of the Cow-pea (though larger), and of various 

 species of dolichos. The leaflets are three, large and broad (5 to 8 

 inches long and half or three- fifths as broad), strong veined and 

 dull dark green, abruptly pointed and smooth. 



This Canavalia seems to be a rather coarse bean when fully ma- 

 tured, but some of my correspondents commend its culinary 

 qualities when green. Naudin and Miiller in " Manuel de I'Ac 



116. Chickasaw Lima. Full size. 



cliraateur," remark that "it is said that the seeds, whilst not 

 poisonous, are digested with difiiculty by those persons which are 

 not accustomed to using them." Mr. John Dehoff, Tabor Lake, 

 Florida, sends specimens for determination and writes : " The 

 bean makes a large bush two and a half to three and a half feet 

 high and broad. It stands all kinds of weather except frost, and 

 blooms and bears unremittingly. The beans are quite accep- 

 table as a ' snap bean,' when the pods are not more than four or 

 six inches long." Alex. Raff, Orange Grove, Mississippi, who sent 

 me the seeds for a name says : " The plant is a bush about thirty 

 inches in height. The blossom is pink, and the seed pods average 

 about twelve inches in length, containing from twelve to fourteen 

 beans. They were grown this season on poor piney-wood sandy 

 soil, fertilized with a little barnyard manure, and I think would 



