STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 419 



Pachacamac, and by Reiss and Stubel at Ancon.' In southern Florida, the lima bean 

 the seeds white, blotched or speckled wth red is found growing spontaneously in aban- 

 doned Indian plantations, and various forms are recorded by authors under specific names 

 as found in America and other countries; as P. bipunctatus Jacq., P. inamoenus Linn., 

 P. puberulus H. B. & K., P. saccharatus Macfad.,^ P. derasus Schrank (Martens), P. 

 rufus Jacq. In the mentions of beans by voyagers, this form is not discriminated from 

 the kidney bean, and hence we cannot offer precise statement of its occtorrence from such 

 authoritieifti 



The lima bean is now widely distributed. It has not been found wild in Asia nor 

 has it any modem Indian or Sanscrit name. Ainslie ' says it was brought to India from 

 the Mauritius and that it is the Vellore, or Duffin, bean of the southern provinces. Wight 

 says it is much cultivated and is seldom if ever found in a wild state, and the large-podded 

 sort is said to have been brought by Dr. Duffin from the Mauritius.^ This bean is not 

 mentioned by the early Chinese writers,' but Luoreiro mentions it in Cochin China in 

 1790. A dark red form came to Martens from Batavia and an orange-red from farther 

 India.' Martens " received it also from Sierra Leone; the form bipunctatus came from 

 the Cape of Good Hope to Vienna;* and Martens received it from Reunion under the name 

 pais du cap. Jaquin, 1770, fixed its appearance in Austria, but it first reached England 

 in 1779. The form inamoenus was considered by Linnaeus to belong to Africa, but he 

 advances, as De Candolle remarks, no evidence of this habitat, and we may remark that 

 the slave trade may well be responsible for the transmission very quickly of South American 

 species of food plants of convenient characters for ship use to the African coast. P. derasus 

 Schrank, considered by Sprengel a variety of P. inamoenus, was found at Rio Janeiro.'" 



The lima bean is the scimitar-podded kidney bean and sugar bean of Barbados;" 

 it was mentioned in Jamaica by Lunan;'^ it may have been the " bushel bean," "very 

 flat, white and mottled with a purple figure," of the Carolinas in 1700-08,'' as this descrip- 

 tion applies very closely to the lima beans now spontaneous in Florida. Two types, the 

 Carolina, or sieva, and the lima, were grown in American gardens in 1806. Eight varie- 

 ties, some scarcely differing, are now offered for sale by our seedsmen; Vilmorin entmierates 

 four for France; the speckled form occurs in Brazil "and in Florida; a black form {P. 



De CandoUe, A. Orig. Cult. Pis. 341. 1885. 



Ibid. 



' Ainslie, W. Mat. Ind. i :28. 1826. 



Wight, R. Icon. Ph. 3: PI. 755. No date. 

 ' Bretschneider, E. On Study. 1870. 



Martens Cartenbohne 96. 1869. 

 ' Ibid. 



Martyn Miller's Card. Did. 1807. 

 Ibid. 



" Martens GortenioAwe 96. 1869. 

 " Schomburgk Hist. Barb. 605. 1848. 

 " Lunan, J. Hort. Jam. 1:434. 1814. 

 " Lawson Hist. Car. 130. i860. 

 " Martens Garie6oAne 96. 1869. 



