V I c 



green sort are often used to cover disagreeable 

 objects. The flowering evergreens are likewise 

 often set out in pots. 



VICIA, a genus furnishing plants of the 

 biennial, perennial, and annual hardy kinds 



It belongs to th 



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The Broad Spanish, which is a little later than 

 the other, but conies in before the common 

 sorts, and is a good bearer. 



The Sandwich Bean, which comes soon after 

 the Spanish, and is almost as large as the Wind- 



e class and order Diadtlplda sorBean; but, being hardier, is commonly sown 

 nks in the natural order of a month sooner. It is a plentiful bearer, but not 



Decandria, and ran 

 PapiUonace<e or Legumirwsce 



The characters are: that the calyx is a one- 

 leafed perianth, tubular, erect, haif-five-cleft, 

 acute: upper teeth shorter, converging, all of 

 equal breadth : the corolla papilionaceous : ban- 

 ner oval, with a broad oblong claw, at ihe tip 

 emarginate with a point, bent back at the sides, 

 with a longitudinal compressed raised line : 



very delicate for the table. 



The Toker Bean, which comes about the same 

 time with the Sandwich, and is a great bearer. 



The White and Black Blossom Beans, which 

 are also by some much esteemed; the beans of 

 the former, when boiled, arc almost as green as 

 peas; and being a tolerable sweet bean render* 

 it more valuable. These sorts are very apt to 



Wings two, oblong, erect, half-cordate, with an degenerate, if their seeds are not saved with great 



oblong claw, shorter than the banner : keel with care. = 



an oblong two-parted claw, the belly compressed, The Windsor Bean is allowed to be the best 



semiorbicular, shorter than the wings: the sta- of all the sorts for the table: when these are 



mina have diadelphous filaments, single and planted on a good soil, and are allowed sufficient 



nine-cleft: anthers erect, roundish, four- room, their seeds"*wi!I be very large, and in mat 



grooved: a nectareous gland springs from the plenty; and, when they are irathered voting are 



receptacle between the compound stamen and the sweetest and bent-tasted of all the sorts* but 



the germ, short, acuminate: the pistillnm is a these should be carefully saved, by pulling out 



linear germ, compressed, long: style filiform, such of the plants as are not perfectly right, and 



shorter, ascending at an erect angle: stigma ob- afterward by sorting out all the good from the 



tuse, transversely bearded below the tip: the bad beans. 



pericarpium is a long legume, coriaceous, one- This sort of bean is seldom planted before 



celled, two-valved, terminated by a point : the Christmas, because it will not bear the frost so 



seeds several, roundish. well as many of the other sorts; so it is eene- 



The species cultivated is V. Faba, The Bean, rally planted for the main crop, to coinc iifjune 



It has an annual root : the stem upright, and Julv. 



about two feet high to three or four in the And of the small early varieties, there is one 



larger garden varieties, thick, angular: the which is chiefly planted for curiosity. It is a 



leaves without tendrils 

 pairs, ovate-oblong, 



the leaflets about three 

 tomentose, convoluted : 

 the flowers several together in the axils, w hue 

 with a black silken spot in the middle of the 

 wings : the legumes thick, roundish, straight, 



dwarf, six or ten inches in height, w ith branches 

 spreading like a fan, and flowers succeeded by 

 small pods, both in clusters; whence it is called 

 Dwarf l\\n or Cluster Bean. 



Also of the middle-sized later beans, a sort 



pointed, very woolly within, containing several now very commonly cultivated is the Long 

 large ovate flatted seeds. It is a native ofEgypt. podded Bean, a yard or mere in height, a great 



There are several varieties of garden beans; as bearer, the pods'lon^ and narrow, closely tilled 

 the Mazagan Bean, which is the first and best with oblong middle-sized seeds. Of this there 

 sort of early beans at present known. It is are several sub- varieties, as the early, the ull, 

 brought from a settlement of the Portuguese on the Turke-v, Sec. 



the coast of Africa, just without the Straits of The White-blossomed Bean, which has none 

 Gibraltar, and smaller than those of the Horse of the black mark on the wings. The seed is 

 Bean. semitransparent, and having Ien-of the peculiar 



The early Portugal or Lisbon Bean, which is ' 

 the next, and appears to be the Mazatran sort 

 saved in Portugal, as it is very like those which 

 are the first year saved in this countrv. It is 

 the most common sort used by the gardeners for 

 their first crop, but they are not near so well 

 tasted as the Mazagan. 



The small Spanish Bean, which comes in soon 

 after the Portugal sort, and is rather a sweeter 

 bean. 



bean flavour, when young, than any of the 

 others, is by many in much esteem. It bears 

 abundance of smallish, long, narrow pods, and 

 the seeds are almost black w hen ripe. 



And there is a red blossomed bean, with 

 smallish . .ds and seeds, but which is not 

 so palatal. !e as that with white blossoms. 



There are also either varietii 



Culture. — These crops arc raised with much 

 facility by towing them at different times from 



