492 LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 



an annual plant, with an upright, smooth, four-sided, hollow 

 stem, dividing into branches near the ground, and growing 

 from two to four feet and upwards in height. The leaves 

 are alternate, pinnate, and composed of from two to four 

 pairs of oval, smooth, entire leaflets ; the flowers are large, 



nearly stemless, purple 

 or white, veined and 

 spotted with purplish- 

 black ; the pods are large 

 and downy ; the seeds 

 are rounded, or reniform, 

 flattened, and vary to a 

 considerable extent in 

 size and color in the dif- 

 ferent varieties, they 

 will vegetate until more 

 than five years old. 



Soil and Planting. 

 As before remarked, the 

 English Bean requires a 

 moist, strong soil, and 

 a cool situation ; the 

 principal obstacles in the 

 way of its successful cul- 

 tivation in this coun- 

 try being the heat and 

 drought of the summer. 

 The seeds should be 

 English Bean. planted early, in drills 



two feet asunder for the smaller-growing varieties, and 

 three feet for the larger sorts, dropping them about six 

 inches from each other, and covering two inches deep. A 

 quart of seed will plant about a hundred and fifty feet of 

 row or drill. 



