BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATIONS OF SOY-BEAN VARIETIES. 11 



Nos. 24675 and 24682) are certainly Glycine soja, but the plants are 

 stouter and less twining, and the pods and seeds larger than the 

 wild form from Japan. Three other varieties (Nos. 24672, Khasi 

 Hills, and 24673 and 24674, Darjiling) we would refer to G. hispida, 

 though the flowers are somewhat smaller than the Japanese and 

 Chinese varieties. The first is erect and bushy, but the other two 

 are procumbent and vining. A variety from Taihoku, Formosa, 

 No. 24642, is very similar to the two varieties from Darjiling. On 

 the whole, we are therefore inclined to believe that there is but one 

 botanical species, which has been profoundly modified by cultivation. 



BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATIONS OF SOY-BEAN VARIETIES. 



The numerous varieties of soy beans have led some botanists to 

 o-ive them botanical designations, but these for the most part have 

 been ignored by later writers. 



Roxburgh (catalogue, p. 55) described a variety in the Calcutta 

 Botanical Garden as Soja Mspida pallida, stating that it had yellow 

 flowers and white seeds. Voigt (Hortus Suburbanus Calcuttensis, 

 p. 231) apparently redescribes the same plant as Soja hispida leuco- 

 spemia. There is perhaps an error here as all of the varieties of soy 

 beans grown by us have either white or purple flowers and none have 

 truly white seeds. 



Martens (Die Gartenbohnen, 1869) discusses the soy bean under 

 the name Soja hispida Moench and gives a classification of thirteen 

 varieties that he had secured from various sources, of which he 

 apparently grew but one. He divides the species into three sub- 

 species based on the form of the seed, under which the varieties 

 are named according to the color of the seed. 



I. Soja elliptica Martens. Seeds oval. 



1. S. elliptica nigra. Seeds black; obtained from Shanghai and Paris. 



2. S. elliptica castanea. Seeds brown ; obtained from Chefoo, Venice, and 



Berlin. 



3. S. elliptica virescens. Seeds greenish yellow; obtained from Paris. 



4. S. elliptica lutescens. Seeds yellow; obtained from Chefoo. 

 II. Soja sphaerica. Seeds globose. 



5. <S. sphaerica nigra. Seeds black, large; obtained from Japan. 



6. S. sphaerica minor. Seeds black, small ; obtained from Japan and Sumatra. 



7. S. sphaerica virescens. Seeds greenish: obtained from Shanghai and 



Yokohama. 



8. 5. sphaerrca lutescens. Seeds yellow, large; obtained as " New Japan peas" 



from Norway. This is identified as var. pallida of Roxburgh. 



9. .^. sphaerica minima. Seeds yellow, small; obtained from Yokohama. 

 III. Soja compressa. Seeds compressed. 



10. 5. compressa nigra. Seeds black, very large; obtained from Yokohama. 



11. S. compressa parvula. Seed3 black, small; obtained from Chefoo. 



12. S. compressa virescens. Seeds greenish; obtained from Berlin as Soja 



ochroleuca Bouch6. 

 1,3. S. compressa zebrina. Seeds brown banded with black; obtained from the 

 Berlin Botanic Garden. 

 197 



