SOYBEANS 515 



known to grow wild. The nearest wild relative of the 

 cultivated plant is a slender-stemmed vining plant with 

 smaller flowers, pods and seeds. This has usually been 

 considered a distinct species under the name of Glycine 

 ussuriensis, and occurs wild in Japan, Manchuria and 

 China. The Indian varieties of soybeans are quite inter- 

 mediate between this wild plant and the Japanese and 

 Manchurian varieties, being for the most part rather 

 slender-stemmed, vining, small-flowered and small-seeded 

 varieties. A critical study of an extensive series of 

 varieties shows that all intergrades between the wild 

 plant and the cultivated erect forms exist, so that there 

 can be but little doubt that but one species is represented. 

 The usual botanical designation for this species is Gly- 

 cine soja, but under recent botanical codes it must be 

 changed to Soja max. If two species are to be recognized, 

 then both are cultivated, as some of the Indian varieties 

 are much more like the wild soybean than they are like 

 the erect Japanese varieties. The large number of varieties 

 of the soybean and the great range of differences in these 

 varieties indicate a very ancient cultivation. 



The flowers of the soybean are small, white or purple, 

 and borne on short axillary racemes, which usually bear 

 eight to fifteen flowers in a cluster, but the number may be 

 as high as thirty-five. 



The pods of most varieties are compressed, though some 

 are nearly terete, each bearing two or three seeds, or rarely 

 four. The pods vary in length according to variety from 

 three-quarters of an inch to three inches, and there may 

 be considerable variation even on the same plant. The 

 pods are commonly borne in clusters of three to five, in 

 extreme cases as many as twelve. On single plants. over 

 400 pods have been counted. The pods are gray or tawny 



