Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 347 



culiar effect. The flowers are borne on long stiff stems, usually two 

 on a stem blossoming at a time, finally followed by more, and mak- 

 ing exceedingly pretty cut flowers. They last only a day and before 

 the petals drop they assume a creamy white appearance ; they are 

 followed by a long bean pod which develops rapidly and in gen- 

 eral appearance resembles a garden bean. The pods are rather 

 tough and have a slightly bitterish taste; they would probably not 

 be edible cooked as snaps. It is said, however, that the Indians 

 ate the beans, which are cylindrical, truncate at each end, and 

 woolly. 



The wild bean appears to reach its best development in a well 

 drained sandy clay. 



A single vine at Plymouth made such a remarkably dense and 

 extensive covering for the ground, which was by no means good 

 soil, being a railroad embankment, mostly gravel, that the ques- 

 tion occurred whether it might not be valuable as a hay plant. 

 Some was offered to a cow who ate it greedily. The plant would 

 yield an immense amount of feed per acre if it grew as it did there, 

 and was as well relished. The particular plants seen were growing 

 in sunlight and it appears to grow best in the open. Along the rich 

 black bottom lands of the central Mississippi it grows in great 

 abundance. It is there called ''Gopher-vine", but the same name is 

 applied to the wild sweet potato {Ipomoea jjandiuxda) . In the 

 barren sand dunes south of Kiethsburg, Illinois, where nothing else 

 will grow, the wild bean vine thrives, not producing a great amount 

 of plant but bearing a good crop of seeds. In Tennessee, along 

 the Cumberland, its distribution was peculiar. It was found only 

 at the sites of old Indian camps or burying places, and near the 

 places where they had their clam bakes ; this suggests that its pres- 

 ence there may be due to seeds left by them. 



Apparently in some cases the seeds germinate the same year 

 thy ripen. In late September, 1913, seedlings just germinated were 

 observed in the gravel bed of the railroad near Arlington. 



The seed of the wild bean requires a resting period before 

 germinating. Some planted in a pot and kept under growing con- 

 ditions did not germinate until spring, and then they made a very 

 rapid growth. The germination is like that of the garden bean, 

 the cotyledons coming out of the ground, the plumule-leaves simple 

 and opposite, the later leaves alternate and trifoliate. The roots 

 of the wild bean bear large nodules about the size of peas, and it 

 would undoubtedly prove valuable as a nitrogen gatherer. 



