334 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Phaseolus Max. Linne.* (P. Mungo, Linne. ; P. radiatus, Linne.) 



. 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. 

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

 pulses. " It f etches 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. Paillieux records, that the young 

 sprouts serve as a delicate vegetable. 



Phaseolus vulgaris, 1'Obel.* 



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

 country Western South- America, inasmuch as Professor Wittmack 

 has recently identified beans from ancient graves at Lima as 

 belonging to P. vulgaris, and records them also from places of 

 interment in Arizona, together with Maize, Prosopis and Phaseolus 

 Pallar (Molino). Found also already in culture at the St. Loreiiz 

 River, when that stream was discovered by Cartier, together with 

 Pumpkins or Gourds. Beans were much cultivated in the Antilles. 

 Florida and Mexico, prior to the arrival of Europeans, according to 

 Acosta, Oviedo and Vaca, Professor Wittmack refers the black 

 beans, widely known as " Feijdospretos " through South- America 

 and there extensively used for human food, to P. vulgaris as a 

 variety. Though this common and important culinary 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 ; it is, among culinary vegetables, the 

 richest in nitrogenous compounds. The meal from beans might 

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

 be mentioned a large proportion of starch (nearly half), then much 

 legumiii, also some phaseolin (which, like amygdalin, can be con- 

 verted into an essential oil) and inosit-sugar. The tall variety 

 also well suited for moist equatorial regions. A variety called 

 Cardinal's Bean (P. sphaericus) has globular red seeds. Lentils 

 contain more legumin but less starch, while peas, and beans are 

 almost alike in respect to the proportion of these two nourishing- 

 substances. The kidney-bean can still be cultivated in cold 

 latitudes and at sub-alpine elevations, if the uninterrupted 

 summer-warmth last for four months ; otherwise it is more tender 

 than the pea. The soil should be friable, somewhat limy and not 

 sandy for field-culture. Phaseolus nanus, L. (the dwarf bean) and 

 P. tumidus, Savi (the sugar-bean, sword-bean or egg-bean) are 

 varities of P. vulgaris. Several other species of Phaseolus seem 

 worthy of culinary culture. Haricot-Beans contain very decided 



