500 LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 



Propagation and Culture. It is raised from seed, which, 

 as the plant requires the entire season for development, 

 should be sown as soon as the ground is warm and settled. 

 Make the drills about twenty inches apart, and drop the 

 seeds ten or twelve inches apart in the drills, covering half 

 or three fourths of an inch deep. The plants will blossom 

 the last of July or beginning of August, and the seeds will 

 be suitable for use in their green state from the 20th of 

 August until destroyed by frost, the crop being seldom fully 

 perfected in the Northern States. 



Use. The seeds are the only parts of the plant eaten, 

 and these, while young, are tender and delicate. The ripe 

 seeds, if soaked for an hour in moderately hot water, take 

 the form and appearance of the Common White Bean, become 

 quite soft and tender, and have a pleasant, nutty, and oily 

 flavor. The whole plant, with the seeds, is also used for 

 feeding stock. 



A variety occurs with green seeds, which is not only 

 considered superior to the Common Yellow-seeded just de- 

 scribed, but is two weeks earlier. 



LENTIL. Law. 

 Ervum lens. 



A hardy, annual plant, with an erect, angular, branching 

 stem a foot and a half high. The leaves are winged, with 

 about six pairs of narrow leaflets, and terminate in a divided 

 tendril, or clasper ; the flowers are small, numerous, and 

 generally produced in pairs ; the pods are somewhat quad- 

 rangular, flattened, usually in pairs, and enclose one or two 

 round, lens-like seeds, the size and color varying in the dif- 

 ferent varieties. About four hundred and fifty are contained 

 in an ounce, and their germinative properties are retained 

 three years. 



