PHASEOLUS CARACALLA 



139 



PHASEOLUS CARACALLA. 



The following is a reprint from notes by M. Denaiffe in 

 his book on beans : — 



This species is a native of warm countries, where, in its 

 wild state, it grows in the form of lianes, forming an almost 

 impassable barrier. 



It has a perennial tuberculate root, giving rise to a 

 woody, branched, and climbing stem, which may attain a 

 height of more than 3 metres; the leaflets are small, 

 rhomboid, oval, tapering to a longish point. The petioles 

 of the inflorescences are longer than the leaves, and bear as 

 manv as twenty flowers; but the majority are sterile, and 

 only a limited number of pods are developed. 



The flowers are large, very fragrant, white in colour, 

 with a wash of lilac, and have the standard, wings, and keel 

 spirallv twisted; husks straight, torose, pendent, with 

 numerous atrophied seeds; the latter are small, lenticular, 

 and dark-brown in colour ; their length and width is 0*007 

 metre, and their thickness varies from o'oo2 to o'oo3 metre. 



According to some writers (G. Van Martens), the state- 

 ment that this plant is a native of the East Indies is 

 erroneous, as A. de Candolle shows that there is no name for 

 this bean in Sanscrit; on the other hand, Polhet and Martins 

 have found it growing wild in Brazil ; furtlier, its name 

 CaracoUeiro is Portuguese ; it is called in Spanish CaracolUUo, 

 and in Italian CaniouoJ. From these names, which all have 

 the same root, is derived (whether as the result of a wrong 



