260 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



Phaseolus COCcineus, Kniphof.* (P. multiflorus, Willdenow.) 



The Scarlet Runner. Tropical South-America. A twining showy 

 perennial, as useful as the ordinary French-bean. Its seeds usually 

 larger than those of the latter plant, purple with black dots, but 

 sometimes also pure-blue and again quite white. The flowers occur 

 sometimes white. The root contains a narcotic poison. 



Phaseolus derasus, Schranck. 



Brazil. There, next to maize, the most important and extensively 

 used plant for human food (Dr. Peckolt). Sprengel refers this to P. 

 inamaenus (Liune), a variety of the following species. 



Phaseolus lunatus, Lmn. 



The " Lima-bean." Perennial. Tropical South- America. A. 

 de Candolle restricts the real nativity to that -part of the globe. 

 Wittmack identifies beans from ancient graves in Peru as belonging 

 to this species. The root is deleterious. Biennial according to Rox- 

 burgh. Much cultivated in the warm zone for its edible beans, which 

 are purple or white. A yellow-flowered variety or closely allied 

 species is know as the Madagascar-beau, and has proven hardy and 

 productive in Victoria. P. pereunis (Walter) from the United States 

 of North- America is another allied plant. ! 



Phaseolus Max, Lmn6. (P. Munyo, Linne; P. radicatus, Linn4.) 



The " Green Gram." South- Asia and tropical Australia. An 

 annual, very hairy plant, not much climbing. Frequently reared in 

 India, when rice fails or where that crop cannot be produced. Ac- 

 cording to Sir Walter Elliot one of the most esteemed of Indian 

 pulses. " It fetches the highest price and is more than any other in 

 request among the richer classes, entering largely into delicate dishes 

 and cake." Cultivated up to 6,000 feet (Forbes Watson). Col. 

 Sykes counted sixty-two pods on one plant with from seven to 

 fourteen seeds in each. The seeds are but small, and the herb is not 

 available for fodder. This plant requires no irrigation, and ripens in 

 two and a half to three months. In India, it yields the earliest pulse- 

 crop in the season. The grain tastes well, and is esteemed whole- 

 some. The harvest is about thirty-fold. Paillieux reminds us that 

 the young sprouts serve as a delicate vegetable. 



Phaseolus vulgaris, 1'Obel.* 



The ordinary Kidney-bean, or French-beau, or Haricot. Native 

 country probably Western South-America, inasmuch as Professor 

 Wittmack has recently identified beans from ancient graves at Lima 

 as belonging to P. vulgaris. Though this common and important culi- 

 nary annual is so well known, it has been deemed desirable to refer to it 

 here, with a view of reminding our readers, that the kidney-bean is 

 nearly twice as nutritious as wheat: The meal from beans might also 

 find far-augmented use. As constituents of the beans should be men- 

 tioned a large proportion of starch (nearly half), then much legumin, 

 also some phaseolin (which, like amygdalin, can be converted into an 



