LIMA BEAN. 287 



rapidity, when fully developed, they are eighteen or 

 twenty inches long, and contain eight or nine seeds. 



These should be sown as early in spring as the appear- 

 ance of settled warm weather ; and the plants will then blos- 

 som in ten or eleven weeks, afford pods for use in fourteen 

 weeks, and ripen off their crop in gradual succession until 

 destroyed by frost. 



The ripe seeds are cinnamon-brown, with a narrow, dark 

 line about the hilum ; kidney-shaped, half an inch long, and 

 a fourth of an inch broad. Nearly four thousand are 

 contained in a quart, and will plant four hundred and fifty 

 hills. 



The seeds are quite small, and are rarely eaten either in 

 a green or ripe state. The variety is cultivated exclusively 

 for its long, peculiar pods, which are crisp, tender, of good 

 flavor, and much esteemed for pickling. It is, however, 

 much less productive than many of the running kinds of 

 garden-beans, and must be considered more curious than 

 really useful. 



A species or variety known as the Chinese Long Pod 

 produces pods of much greater length, often measuring 

 nearly three feet. 



LIMA BEAN. 



Phaseolus lunatus. 



Stem ten feet or more in height ; leaves long and nar- 

 row, smooth and shining ; flowers small, greenish-yellow, in 

 spikes ; the pods are four inches and a half long, an inch 

 and a quarter broad, much flattened, green and wrinkled 

 while young, yellowish when ripe, and contain three or four 

 beans. 



The Lima is one of the latest, as well as one of the most 

 tender, of all garden-beans, and seldom, if ever, entirely 

 perfects its crop in the Northern States. Little will be 



