70 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



planted, they will produce seeds of a far 

 greater size. Other ancient authors state, 

 that if they are steeped for three days in 

 water mixed with urine, they grow more ra- 

 pidly, and the seed will be larger. 



Beans were used medicinally by the an- 

 cients : when bruised and boiled with garlic 

 they were said to cure coughs that were 

 thought past other remedy. 



The meal or flour of beans, called lomentwn 

 by the Romans, was a celebrated cosmetic 

 with the ladies, in former times, as it was 

 thought to possess the virtue of smoothing 

 the skin and taking away wrinkles. 



Beans are now T seldom, if ever, used as food, 

 in this improved country, in their dried state ; 

 but when sent to table young, they are gene- 

 rally admired and esteemed a proper vegeta- 

 ble with bacon. 



The ancients, with Dodonseus, Casp. Hoff- 

 man, and others of the moderns, tell us that 

 beans are flatulent, and the greener they are, 

 the more flatulent, and consequently the 

 more difficult of concoction : " However we," 

 says Ray, "do not find this to be true, though 

 we frequently feed upon beans in the sum- 

 mer : nor do we approve of the opinion of 

 Dodonaeus, who prefers the old and dry 



