16 FLORIDA VELVET BEAN AND RELATED PLANTS. 



Be that as it may, the plant is cultivated during the cold season, when it blossoms 

 and produces fruit in great abundance. 



Root ramous, generally annual, though in some soils it lasts longer. Stem twining 

 to an extent of some fathoms, very ramous and thick, but of a spongy, succulent 

 nature, young shoots a little villous. Leaves ternate. Leaflets entire, the pair 

 nearly semicordate, the terminal one rhomboidal; all have short acute points and 

 are nearly equal in size, of a soft delicate texture and slightly villous on both sides; 

 from 4 to 10 inches long. Petioles round, slightly villous, from 6 to 12 inches long. 

 Stipules lanceolate. Racemes axillary, solitary, pendulous, often as long or even 

 longer than the leaves, bearing numerous, three-fold, pendulous, very large white 

 flowers. Bracts fourfold, a common one to each tubercle of the racemes, on which 

 the three flowers are inserted, and one to each of the proper pedicels, all are caducous, 

 nearly lanceolate, and villous. Calyx four parted. The upper division broad and 

 emarginate; the lower one narrowest and more lengthened than the lateral pair. 

 Corol papilionaceous. Banner cordate, incumbent on the wings and keel, and about 

 half their length. Wings oblong, with a remarkable callous gland near the base of 

 each. Keel one petalled, linear, length of the wings, with a sharp, rigid, incurved 

 point. Nectary a crenulate gland round the insertion of the germ. Filaments one 

 and nine, alternately clavate and filiform, with long linear, subsagittate anthers on 

 the slender filaments, and short-ovate ones on the clavate ones. Germ hairy. Style 

 slender and villous. Stigma small. Legume linear, about 6 inches long, curved a 

 little like an italic S when ripe, black, destitute of down, and longitudinally wrinkled. 

 Seeds generally from six to eight, oval, smooth, ash colored, and separated by thin 

 partitions. 



By removing the exterior velvet-like skin of the large, fleshy, tender legumes, they 

 are when dressed, like French beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), a most excellent vegetable 

 for our tables, and the full-grown beans are scarcely inferior to the large garden beans 

 of Europe. 



We identify as this species S. P. I. No. 24936, obtained through Mr. 

 C. Drieberg, of the Ceylon Agricultural Society, Colombo, Ceylon, 

 which at Biloxi, Miss., and Gainesville, Fla., proved indistinguishable 

 from Mucuna hjonii (S. P. I. No. 19979) obtained from the Philip- 

 pines. The original specimens of Mucuna lyonii came from Pam- 

 panga Province, Luzon, there called "Sabual." This is the only 

 species obtained by us with ash-colored seeds that has white flowers. 

 Wight and Arnott, a in discussing Mucuna cajritata, comment as 

 follows : 



M. niveum, D. C. (Carpopogon niveum, Roxb. in East India Company, mus. tab. 

 1601) is a species very closely allied, but differs by the long drooping racemes and the 

 legumes when ripe, entirely free from pubescence; it likewise is only known as a 

 cultivated plant. 



Watt's Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, 1891, vol. 5, 

 p. 285, comments as follows: 



Met with in Burma and Bengal, perhaps only a cultivated variety of Mucuna 

 pruriens. 



Cultivated during the cold season for the sake of its abundant and useful fruit, 

 The large, fleshy, tender legumes have long been known and valued as a vegetable 

 by the Hindus, and, according to Roxburgh, are, when dressed, like French beans, 

 a most excellent vegetable for European tables. 



a Op. cit., p. 255. 

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