486 LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 



during winter, and reset in the open ground on the approach 

 of warm w r eather, when new shoots will soon make their 

 appearance, and the plants will blossom a second time early 

 and abundantly. 



The plants are twelve feet or more in height or length, 

 with deep green foliage and brilliant scarlet flowers ; the 

 latter being produced in spikes, on long footstalks. The pods 

 are six inches long, nearly an inch broad, somewhat hairy 

 while young, sickle-shaped and wrinkled when more ad- 

 vanced, light reddish-brown when ripe, and contain four or 

 five seeds. 



It requires the whole season for its perfection, and should 

 be planted as early as the weather will admit. The plants 

 will then blossom in seven or eight weeks, produce young 

 pods in nine weeks, green seeds in twelve weeks, and ripen 

 in a hundred and fifteen days. 



The ripe seeds are lilac-purple, variegated with black, or 

 deep purplish-brown, the edge, or border, little, if any, 

 marked ; hilum long and white ; form broad-kidney-shaped ; 

 size large, if well grown, measuring seven eighths of an 

 inch long, six tenths of an inch broad, and three eighths of 

 an inch thick. About five hundred and fifty are contained in 

 a quart, and will plant eighty hills. 



In this country, it is usually cultivated as an ornamental, 

 climbing annual ; the spikes of rich, scarlet flowers, and its 

 deep green foliage, rendering the plant one of the most showy 

 and attractive objects of the garden. 



Though inferior to some of the finer sorts of garden-beans, 

 its value as an esculent has not been generally appreciated. 

 The young pods are tender and well flavored ; and the seeds, 

 green or ripe, are much esteemed in many localities. " In 

 Britain, the green pods only are used ; on the Continent, the 

 ripened seeds are as much an object of culture ; in Holland, 

 the Runners are grown in every cottage-garden for both pur- 



