218 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



as indigenous, since of their introduction the present 

 inhabitants of the vicinity could most probably give 

 him no account, but which from history and the nature 

 of the plants themselves are known to be exotics in- 

 troduced at a specific time. 



Beans are cultivated over many countries, as far to 

 the eastward as China and Japan, and they are very 

 generally used as an esculent in many parts of Africa; 

 from its northern coast some of the more valuable 

 varieties were transplanted by the Moors into Spain, 

 and by the Portuguese into their own country. 



This plant is grown abundantly in Burbary, where 

 it is usually full-podded at the latter end of February, 

 and continues in bearing during the whole of spring. 

 When stewed with oil and garlic, beans form, accord- 

 ing to Shaw, the principal food of persons of all classes. 



The bean in its green state is well known as a culi- 

 nary vegetable ; when mature and dried it is never 

 used as human food in this country, but is then con- 

 sidered good, though coarse nourishment for labour- 

 ing horses. Campbell, in his Political Survey, pub- 

 lished 1774, mentions that beans are exported for 

 the food of the negroes in our plantations, and are 

 employed in feeding horses at home ; so that alto- 

 gether they are in daily use, and most certainly turn 

 to a very considerable amount.'* Provisions for this 

 unhappy race of human beings are in the present day 

 somewhat better selected, and horse-beans do not any 

 longer form an article of export to the colonies. 



All the cultivated beans are annuals, having up- 

 right fibrous stems rising from two to four feet high. 

 The flowers are usually white, with a black spot in 



* King stated the annual consumption of beans at that period 

 to be four millions, and of peas seven millions of bushels. 

 Campbell, indeed, considered this estimate to be excessive, but 

 if it at all approximates to the truth, it shows that these 

 legumes were then cultivated to a very great extent. 



