Chap. 30.] THE BEAK. 45 



The bean is the first leguminous plant that is sown ; that 

 being done before the setting of the YergilisB, in order that it 

 may pass the winter in the ground. Virgil 56 recommends that 

 it should be sown in spring, according to the usage of the parts 

 of Italy near the Padus : but most people prefer the bean that 

 has been sown early to that of only three months' growth ; 

 for, in the former case, the pods as well as the stalk afford a 

 most agreeable fodder for cattle. When in blossom more par- 

 ticularly, the bean requires water ; but after the blossom has 

 passed off, it stands in need of but very little. It fertilizes 87 

 the ground in which it has been sown as well as any manure ; 

 hence it is that in the neighbourhood of Thessaly and Ma- 

 cedonia, as soon as it begins to blossom, they turn up 58 the 

 ground. 



The bean, too, grows wild in most countries, as in those 

 islands of the Northern Ocean, for instance, which for that 

 reason have been called by us the " Fabarise." 59 In Mauritania, 

 also, it is found in a wild state in various parts, but so remark- 

 ably hard that it will never become soft by boiling. 



In Egypt there is a kind of bean 60 which grows upon a 

 thorny stalk ; for which reason the crocodiles avoid it, being 

 apprehensive of danger to their eyes. This stalk is four 

 cubits in length, and its thickness, at the very most, that of 

 the finger : were it not for the absence of articulations in it, 

 it would resemble a soft reed in appearance. The head is 

 similar to that of the poppy, being of a rose colour : the beans 

 enclosed in this head are not above thirty in number ; the 

 leaves are large, and the fruit is bitter and odoriferous. The 

 root, however, is highly esteemed by the natives as a food, 

 whether eaten raw or well boiled ; it bears a strong resem- 

 blance to that of the reed. This plant grows also in Syria 

 and Cilicia, and upon the banks of Lake Torone in Chalcidice. 



56 Georg. i. 215. 



57 This notion still prevails, and the bean, while in blossom, is dug into 

 the ground to manure it, both in England and France. 



68 It does not appear, however, that this was done with the view of 

 digging in the beans. 



Or Bean Islands. See B. iv. c. 27. 



60 The Nymphaea nclumbo of Linnaeus is alluded to, but it is no longer 

 to be found in Egypt. Pliny is supposed to derive this from Theophrastus, 

 Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 10, but his translation is not exactly correct. 



