[All Rights Reserved.] 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, 
No. 5.] : (1912. 
XXIII—A NEW GROUND BEAN. 
(Kerstingiella geocarpa, Harms.) 
Witau a Note on THE DIscoveRY OF VOANDZEIA 
SUBTERRANEA IN THE WILD STATE, 
O. STAPF. 
Three years ago Professor H. Harms* described a new genus of 
fare which he called Kerstingiella after its discoverer, 
Dr. Kersting of Sokodé, Togoland. Apart from the strictly 
botanical interest attaching to it, it was remarkable as the source of 
a ground bean or nut which had been until then unnoticed, although 
its cultivation in Upper Guinea as we now know extends over a 
fairly large area. In 1910 Dr. A. Chevalier} recorded the same 
plant from Dahomey, describing it as a new species of Voandzeia 
under the name V. Pozssonii. Since then it has been in cultivation 
and under observation in the Botanic Gardens at Dahlem and Jena, 
and last year Professor Harmsf published a short article in which he 
summarised briefly what was then known about this ground bean, 
adding some valuable information concerning the conditions of its 
cultivation. 
Chevalier§ states that ae eer assured him of the porter 
of the bean in British Ni This statement is con 
by specimens of Kerstingiella soritievienated to Kew by Mr. W. R. 
Elliot, who came across it as a field crop in Nupe. = 
plant is undoubtedly of some economic importance and it seem 
desirable to call the attention of British residents and travellers in 
Nigeria to the occurrence of this ground bean in order to ascertain 
its distribution in that colony and to gather further information 
about its cultivation and economic uses, and also, if possible, to 
discover it in the wild state in which it has not so far been 
observed. 
* Harms in Berichte d. oe Bot. ay vol. xxvi., a, p. 230, tab. iii. 
A. = alier in Com end., vol. cli., p. 
t Har 4 aa peg e eloudkaioahnee, vol. " xxviii, p. 160; reprinted in 
eogenpl.- ares a 
§ Chevalier in ; Doma. Rend., vol. cli., p. 1374. 
(24254—6a.) Wt. 189—808. 1125. 6/12, D&S, 
