
414 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [NOVEMBER 
possibility that the variety in question might be closely related 
to the tepary, it was ordered from every available source. In this 
manner 216 more or less distinct varieties were secured. Nothwith- 
standing the fact that anyone familiar with the tepary could tell 
at a glance that none of these belonged to this group, all of those 
varieties which in any way resembled it were planted. In the 
seedling stage further confirmation of their relationship to P. 
vulgaris was made unnecessary by the uniformly long petioles of 
the first pair of aerial leaves. 
Varieties : 
Domesticated from the neighboring canyons and cultivated 
in small patches, attended at best by a crude husbandry, and 
dependent upon the precarious summer rains and uncertain floods 
from the mountain washes for irrigation, the tepary has lost none 
of its native hardiness. Like other cultivated plants, however, 
it has responded to domestication in the production of a number of 
more or less distinct varieties. These varieties manifest themselves 
chiefly in the color of the flowers and in the shape and color of 
the seed. The habit of growth, foliage, and pod characters show 
but little change, with the exception that the white-seeded sorts 
seem to have slightly smaller leaves than do those with yellow or 
darker colored seeds. 
Food value of the tepary 
There is considerable difference of opinion as to the relative 
palatability of beans and teparies. Among the Indians and Mexi- 
cans the pink bean is preferred to the tepary, as they say it has a 
better flavor. These people, however, make the same difference 
between the pink bean and the white navy beans which are shipped 
in from the East. : 
Teparies should be soaked 12 hours before cooking, during 
which time they swell to at least twice their original volume and 
more than double in weight. In this respect they markedly 
surpass the bean. The greater swelling and absorptive power of 
the tepary is probably due to its greater initial specific gravity, 
which is about 1.33 as compared with 1.22 for the bean. After 
