PHA 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



PHA 



281 



when you find they are ripe, if the season be dry, pull up the 

 plants, and spread them abroad to dry; after which you 

 may thresh out the seed, and preserve it in a dry place for 

 use. For forward crops of Dwarf Kidney Beans, the early 

 White and Negro sorts are the best, and bear the longest. 

 For the main crop, the Speckled, Battersea, and Canterbury 

 Dwarfs, are to be preferred, being plentiful bearers, and of 

 long continuance. To secure a regular supply from the 

 middle or end of June to October, they should be sown from 

 the middle of April to the middle or end of July, every 

 fortnight or three weeks. For the first crop the soil must be 

 dry and light, the situation warm and sheltered, the drills 

 drawn north and south. The other crops are better in the 

 open quarters. In dry weather the Beans about to be sown 

 should be soaked some hours in water, or else the drills 

 should be well watered immediately before they are put in. 

 The climbing sorts, or runners, are not fit for early crops, 

 but principally for summer and autumn from July to Michael- 

 mas, or till frosts put an end to them. The first or second 

 week in May is early enough to put in the first crop of these ; 

 and the second may be planted any time in June. Two crops 

 will furnish an abundant and* constant supply. To raise 

 Dwarf Kidney Beans by artificial heat, they should be sown 

 in a very moderate hot-bed at the end of March, and planted 

 out when they are an inch or two high, and the weather is 

 favourable, in a warm border. They may be sown on the 

 surface in the hot-bed, or in large pots ; but it is best to put 

 them in small pots, three in each pot, because they may be 

 turned out for transplantation, with the ball of earth about 

 their roots, and thus be scarcely sensible of their removal. 

 They must however be gradually inured to bear the open 

 air, by taking off the covering whenever the weather is mild, 

 and exposing them by degrees; refreshing them frequently 

 with water, when they cannot have the benefit of warm 

 showers. After they are transplanted they should be well 

 watered, to settle the earth to their roots ; and it will much 

 forward their growth, if they be covered occasionally with 

 hand-glasses when the nights are cold. After all, however, 

 this crop will only come into bearing a fortnight sooner than 

 plants sown in the natural ground. But to produce Kidney 

 Beans for the table in April and May, or perhaps towards 

 the end of March, they must be raised and continued in a 

 hot-bed, which should be made by the middle or end ol 

 February. When the heat and steam is abated, and the bed 

 is covered six or eight inches thick with mould, sow the 

 seeds of one of the small early dwarf sorts in drills fifteen or 

 eighteen inches asunder, an inch deep, and two or three 

 inches apart; give them air, and refresh them with water in 

 fine weather. When they are fully grown, if they press 

 much against the glasses, raise them at bottom to give the 

 plants room to grow freely. They may also be raised on a 

 very hot bed in December or January ; and removed when 

 of a proper size into another hot-bed, made as directed for 

 Cucumbers ; only the dung need not be so thick, less heat 

 being required. When this bed is of a moderate warmth 

 lift the plants out of the other with a trowel, leaving as much 

 earth about their roots as you can, and plant them at four- 

 teen inches' distance row from row, and four inches plan 

 from plant. Give them a moderate watering, but afterwards 

 be sparing of water ; and shade the beds from noon till th 

 sun is nearly ofF, giving them air in mild weather. Th 

 frames should be two feet high in the back, sloping to fifteei 

 inches in front, and the bed should be four feet broad. Ir 

 hot-houses or stoves early Kidney Beans may be had a 

 almost any time with ease, by raising them in "pots or long 

 uarrow boxes. The best sorts for this purpose are the earlj 



vhite liver-coloured, or speckled dwarfs. The pots or boxes, 

 lied with light rich earth, may be placed upon the top of 

 be wall which surrounds the bark-bed, or upon shelves upon 

 ny convenient part of the house. When the seeds begin to 

 prout, moisten the mould; and when they are grown up, 

 vater them frequently, or at least three times a week. Where 

 oom is wanting, the seeds may be set in small pots, and 

 ransplanted into larger ones for fruiting. 



2. Phaseolus Lunatus; Scimitar-podded Kidney Bean. 

 Stem twining; legumes scimitar-shaped, somewhat crescent- 



.haped, even; peduncles many-flowered; flowers yellow, 

 with a spreading green banner of the same colour as the ca- 

 ix. It is eaten in Cochin-china, but is more esteemed for 

 he beauty than the flavour of the seeds. It flowers here in 

 lune and July. Native of the East Indies. 



3. Phaseolus Bipunctatus. Stem twining ; legumes scimi- 

 tar shaped, pubescent; seeds with two dots at the hilum or 

 scar. Native of the Cape. 



4. Phaseolus Inamoneus. Stem twining; banner revolute, 

 of the same colour with the calices ; root annual. The whole 

 )lant is smooth ; flowers inelegant, with a concave greenish 

 >anner, and long, obtuse, concave wings, stretched out, and 

 whitish, as is the spirally intorted keel. Native of Africa. . 



5. Phaseolus Farinosus. Stem twining; peduncles sub- 

 capitate; seeds four-cornered-cylindrical, meally ; flowers 

 rose-coloured ; seeds downy, appearing as if covered with 

 meal ; leaves angular, like those of Ground Ivy. Native of 

 ;he East Indies. 



6. Phaseolus Trilobum ; Three-lobed Kidney Bean. Stem 

 t\alf- twining, decumbent, smoothish ; leaflets three-lobed ; 

 lobes orate ; stipules ovate ; legumes cylindrical. This is 

 the same with Dolichos Trilobus, which see. 



f l. Phaseolus Vexillatus ; Sweet-scented Kidney Bean. 

 Stem twining ; peduncles thicker than the petiole, forming a 

 head; wings somewhat sickle-shaped, difform; legumes linear, 

 strict ; stipules loose at the base, and bifid ; flowers few, 

 sessile, sweet-smelling. This plant is intermediate between 

 this genus and that of Dolichos. Native of the West Indies. 



8. Phaseolus Helvolus. Stem twining ; flowers in heads ; 

 calices bracted; wings expanded, very large ; leaflets deltoid, 

 oblong; petioles an inch long. Native of Carolina. 



9. Phaseolus Semierectus ; Dark-red-flowered Kidney 

 Bean. Stem half- twining; flowers in spikes ; calices with- 

 out bractes ; wings expanded, larger; leaflets ovate ; stipules 

 somewhat ensiform. It flowers in July. Native of the West 

 Indies. 



10. Phaseolus Alatus. Stem twining; flowers in loose 

 spikes ; wings the length of the banner ; pedicel slender, very 

 short, purple. Native of Carolina. 



1 1 . Phaseolus Caracalla ; Twisted-flowered Kidney Bean, 

 or Snail Flower. Stem twining ; banner and keel spirally 

 convoluted. Perennial. The flowers are produced in slender 

 .spikes : they are of a purplish colour, and have an agreeable 



odour, being succeeded by slender compressed pods, con- 

 taining several oval compressed seeds.- -Native of Brazil. 



12. Phaseolus Aconitifolius. Stem twining ; leaves sub- 

 qumquepartite ; leaves alternate, smooth, ternate ; petioles 

 and nerves at the back hairy; flowers small, with a wide ban- 

 ner disposed in a sort of raceme. Native of the East Indies. 



13. Phaseolus Hirtus. Stem half- twining; legum esround ; 

 keel horned to the left; root annual; peduncles axillary, 

 from two to three inches long, hispid in a sort of head, but 

 it rarelv happens that more than two of the flowers are fer- 

 tile. 1 'hey are of a dirty yellow colour, the upper part espe- 

 cially of the banner being brownish. Native of Turkey. 



14. Phaseolus Tuberosus. Stem ?canclcnt ; banner revo- 



