34 



CIRCULAR NO. 110, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 

 Table I. — Analyses of the jack bean. 



THE SWORD BEAN. 



The sword bean (Canavali gladiata), also known as the knife bean 

 and the saber bean, is closely related to the jack bean and the two 

 have been much confused. The sword bean is found cultivated 

 through much of southern Asia and also in Africa. At various 

 times it has been introduced into America, but is still cultivated almost 

 entirely as a curiosity or as an arbor vine. 



HISTORY. 



The sword bean was briefly described and well illustrated by 

 Rheede x under the name "Bara-mareca," the plants being found at 

 Angiecamal and other places on the southwest coast of India as a 

 cultivated vegetable. The color of the beans and seeds is not 

 stated. What is quite certainly the same species is described and 

 figured by Rumphius 2 under the name Lobus machaeroides, the 

 native name in Amboyna being Cacara parrang. The figure of the 

 pods is, however, faulty. Rumphius describes the seeds as either 

 intense red or else fuscous and states it is rarely cultivated in Amboyna 

 but abundantly in Java and Baleya. Linnaeus erroneously supposed 

 the plants of Rheede and of Rumphius to be the same as his Dolichos 

 ensiformis, the jack bean. Jacquin, however, grew the sword bean 

 in the greenhouse of the botanical garden at Vienna and in 1788 

 described it fully under the name Dolichos gladiatus, 3 later publish- 

 ing a beautiful colored plate. 4 The variety he grew had dark-red 

 seeds and white flowers, which later became suffused with pink. 

 The source of the plant is not stated. 



Later authors have greatly confused Canavali gladiata and Cana- 

 vali ensiformis, but both the pods and seeds of the two are very 



i Rheede tot Draakenstein, H. A. van. Hortus Malabaricus, pars 8, p. 85, pi. 44, 1688. 



2 Rumphius, G. E. Herbarium Amboinense, pars 5, p. 376, 1747. 



a Jacquin, N. J. von. Collectanea, t. 2, p. 276, 1788. 



4 Jacquin, N. J. von. Icones Plantarum Rariorum, v. 3, pi. 560, 1786-1793. 



[Cir. 110] 



