290 LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 



pods, and particularly in the fact that the cotyledons, or lobes, 

 of the planted seed, do not rise to the surface of the ground 

 in the process of germination. It is, besides, a perennial 

 plant. The roots are tuberous, and, though small, not un- 

 like those of the Dahlia. 



If taken up before frost in the autumn, they may be pre- 

 served in a conservatory, or warm parlor or sitting-room, 

 during winter, and reset in the open ground on the approach 

 of warm weather, when new shoots will soon make their 

 appearance, and the plants will blossom a second time early 

 and abundantly. 



Plant twelve feet or more in height or length, with deep- 

 green foliage and brilliant scarlet flowers ; the latter being 

 produced in spikes, on long footstalks. The pods are six 

 inches long, nearly an inch broad, somewhat hairy while 

 young, sickle-shaped and wrinkled when more advanced, 

 light reddish-brown when ripe, and contain four or five 



It requires the whole season for its perfection, and should 

 be planted as early as the weather will admit. The plants 

 will then blossom in seven or eight weeks, produce young 

 pods in nine weeks, green seeds in twelve weeks, and ripen 

 in a hundred and fifteen days. 



The ripe seeds are lilac-purple, variegated with black, or 

 deep purplish-brown, the edge, or border, little, if any, 

 marked ; hilum long and white ; form broad-kidney-shaped ; 

 size large, if well grown, measuring seven-eighths of an 

 inch long, six-tenths of an inch broad, and three-eighths of 

 an inch thick. Five hundred and fifty are contained in a 

 quart, and will plant eighty hills. 



In this country, it is usually cultivated as an ornamental, 

 climbing annual ; the spikes of rich, scarlet flowers, and its 

 deep-green foliage, rendering the plant one of the most showy 

 and attractive objects of the garden. 



Though inferior to some of the finer sorts of garden-beans, 



