B. P. I.— 558. 



THE FLORIDA VELVET BEAN AND RELATED 



PLANTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



For about fifty years the Florida velvet bean has been known in 

 Florida, and in the last twenty years has become of increasing agri- 

 cultural importance. Its early history has been told by Mrs. K. S. 

 Bort in Bulletin No. 141, Part III, of the Bureau of Plant Industry. 



The Florida velvet bean is principally grown on account of its 

 extreme vigor and the large quantity of pods which it produces per 

 acre. The plants are nearly always utilized by pasturing to stock, 

 cattle being turned into the fields in November and finishing on the 

 velvet bean in good condition for marketing. 



The Florida velvet bean is a long-season crop, and even in Florida 

 has to be planted early in the spring in order to mature its seed. On 

 this account an earlier variety has long been a desideratum, especially 

 if along with earliness can be secured a greater production of seed per 

 acre. For various reasons the fact that there are other kinds of 

 Stizolobium closely related to the Florida velvet bean has been over- 

 looked by American agronomists, though at least three such species 

 from India and Java were long ago described. Apparently none of 

 these, however, were introduced for trial in Florida until 1907. 



In September, 1906, there were received from Dr. J. W. Hart, 

 Piracicaba, Brazil, seeds of a species of Stizolobium (S. P. I. No. 19181) 

 which differed from the Florida velvet bean in having coal-black, 

 shining seeds, and in February, 1907, another species, with white seeds, 

 was received from Mr. W. S. Lyon, Manila, P. I., under the name of 

 Mucuna lyonii Merrill. These two lots were grown in 1907 and since. 

 After their receipt it seemed to be wise to endeavor to get together all 

 of the other species of this genus in the hope of finding varieties that 

 would prove earlier or otherwise more valuable than the Florida velvet 

 bean. In the three years during which this effort has been made, with 

 the assistance of the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, 

 twenty sorts distinct atjeast as to seed characters have been obtained. 

 Not only have these varieties indicated that there are greater possi- 

 bilities in this group of plants than had been supposed, but an exceed- 

 32918— Bull. 179—10 2 7 



