BOOK XVIII. X. 57 60 



Beans shoot out into leaves and then throw out a leavesof 

 stalk which is divided by no joints. The rest of the pfZsZ"d 

 leguminous plants are tough and woody . Some of them <>/ corn. 

 are branching — the chick-pea, the bitter vetchand the 

 lentil. In some the stems spread along the ground 

 if they are not propped up, but peas chmb if given a 

 prop, or else they deteriorate. The bean is the only 

 one of the leguminous phints tliat has a single stem ; 

 the lupine also has onlv one but it does not stand up 

 straight, all the others having branches with a very 

 thin woody stalk, but all of them hoUow. Some send 

 out a leaf from the root, some from the top, for 

 instance wheat and barley. Each of these and all 

 the pUmts that make straw have one leaf at the top — 

 thougli barley leaves are rough and those of the rest 

 smooth — whereas the bean, the chick-pea and the pea 

 are many-leaved. In corn the lcaf is like that of a 

 reed ; those of the bean and a large part of the legu- 

 minous plants are round ; those of the chickhng " and 

 pea rather long, that of calavance veined, that of 

 sesame and hedge mustard the colour of blood. Only 

 the lupin and the poppy shed their leaves. Legumin- 

 ous plants remain longcr in flower, and among them 

 more particularly bitter vetch and chick-pea,but long- 

 est of all the bean, which flow ers for forty days, though 

 the single stalks do not keep their flowers so long, 

 since when one goes off another begins, nor does the 

 whole crop flower at the same time, as with corn, 

 but all the pods form on different days, the blossom 

 starting first at the bottom and rising gradually. 



When cereals have finished flowering, they grad- Timetaken 

 ually swell and ripen in 40 days at most, and the same '""P"""^- 

 is the case with the bean, but the chick-pea ripens in 

 the fewest days, as it is completely ready in 40 days 



227 



