36 CIRCULAR NO. 110, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



the finest I ever tasted. * * * The Japanese use them generally 

 for pickling when young and they are very fine for this purpose." 

 In China the pink-seeded form (S. P. I. No. 23216) is said by Mr. 

 Frank N. Meyer to be "a very rare bean used mainly as a stomach- 

 strengthening food, and for this reason to be had only in medicine 

 shops." Brill, under S. P. I. No. 6570, also records that these "beans 

 are very good but expensive." As the plant yields heavily, it is 

 difficult to understand why the beans should be expensive. 



VALUE FOR FORAGE AND AS A COVER CROP. 



All the varieties of the sword bean tested are rambling vines, none 

 of them being bushy like the jack bean. As forage they are not as 

 desirable, as the foliage is just as bitter and the habit inferior. 



As a cover crop the Indian variety with red seeds and red flowers 

 has proved very satisfactory in Porto Rico. Cattle are said to graze 

 on the plant there to a limited extent. 



The sword bean is not infrequently seen in the South, grown as 

 an arbor plant, but little seems to be known of the value of the green 

 pods as a vegetable. Indeed, the impression prevails that the seeds 

 are deleterious, an idea doubtless obtained by association with the 

 very similar jack bean, as the sword bean is everywhere utilized as 

 a vegetable in the Orient. The plant will develop full-grown green 

 pods as far north as Washington, D. C, but ordinarily the season is 

 not long enough for the seeds to ripen. 



[Cir. 110] 



