172 



PIIASEOLUS DIVERSIFOLIUS. KIDNEY-BEAN. 



cultivation it is easily persuaded to twine up on stakes, and thus 

 o-rown it makes a very ornamental object in the garden. Quite 

 a peculiar feature is the change of color which the flowers 

 undergo. When they open they are of a pretty, rosy purple, as 

 in the uppermost flower on our plate ; but soon they commence 

 to change, and by the second day or so they are of a pale pink- 

 ish-yellowish white, like the two lower flowers in our drawing. 



The curious twist in the keel of the species belonging to 

 Phascolus, which we have alluded to before, is very striking, and 

 has by some botanists been considered an arrangement favoring 

 cross-fertilization. On the least pressure on the corolla the pistil 

 protrudes ; and if this pressure is exercised by an insect having 

 pollen on its body, some of the pollen is deposited on the pistil. 



P. divci-sifolius is remarkable for its northern range, being the 

 only species of its genus which is found in Maine, while most of 

 its allies are tropical. It has a very wide range of territory, as 

 it occurs more or less abundantly from Maine southward in all 

 the Seaboard States to Florida. Across the Mississippi it is 

 found in Texas, and through Arkansas and Kansas to Nebraska, 

 which seems to be its northwestern boundary ; and from there 

 it sweeps eastward through Iowa, and along the lake region, 

 until it again reaches the sea. Many plants are found in widely 

 distant parts of our country, but few have so regular a distribu- 

 tion as our present species. 



The Phaseolus diversifolms seems to have received no com- 

 mon name, but its beauty and the many other points of interest 

 ifhich it offers will no doubt bring it into popular notice some 

 day, when it may receive a familiar title from its admirers. In 

 its wild state it grows in sandy fields and banks, or on sandy 

 lake-shores, and flowers from June to October, according to the 

 locality. 



ExPLVNATiON OF THE PlaTe. — I. Part of a flowering branch.— 2. Leaf from another 

 branch, showing the leaflets and venation from the under surface. — 3. Stem with 

 unripe pods. 



