FIVE OEIEJSTTAL SPECIES OF BEAISTS. 3 



will perhaps depend more on their acceptability as human food than 

 on their value for other purposes. 



The adaptations of these five species of beans are very similar 

 to those of the cowpea, all requiring hot summer weather for their 

 satisfactory development. The varieties of the mung and the urd 

 are fairly numerous; some early, others late. The moth has but 

 few varieties and all are rather late, so they will not mature as far 

 north as Virginia. The adsuki produces numerous early varieties 

 and some of these will probably ripen wherever the common bean 

 will mature. Generally speaking, the mung, urcl, moth, and rice 

 beans are to be compared to the cowpea, while the adsuki is to be 

 contrasted with the common bean. 



THE ADSUKI BEAN. 



The adsuki bean {Phiseolus angularis (Willd.) W. F. Wight; 

 PI. I) is much cultivated for human food in Japan and Chosen and to 

 a less extent in China and Manchuria, but is apparently unknown 

 in India and elsewhere in Asia. No mention of its cultivation in 

 Europe has been found in agricultural literature. 



Next to the soy bean it seems to be the most important legume 

 grown in Japan. In 1910 the respective acreage and production 

 of these two crops in that country were given as follows : 



Crop. 



Area. 



Produc- 

 tion. 



Yield 

 per acre. 





Acres. 

 345, 634 

 1,171,438 



English 



quarters. 



598, 794 



2, 105, 964 



rounds. 

 969 





1,002 







From these figures the average yield per acre of adsuki beans 

 is shown to be but little inferior to that of soy beans. 



BOTANY AND HISTORY. 



The first knowledge of the adsuki, or atsuki, bean to Europeans is 

 the brief description by Kaempfer (1712, fasc. 5, p. 837). Kaempfer's 

 drawing of the plant was later published by Banks (Kaempfer, 1791, 

 pi. 40). This illustration is excellent and unmistakable. On the 

 basis of Kaempfer's description and illustration Willdenow (1801, 

 p. 1051) named the plant DolicJios angularis. While the species is 

 clearly and abundantly distinct, it has been confused with related 

 species by most botanists. 



No doubt the botanical confusion of the adsuki bean with the mung 

 and the urd is responsible to some extent for the fact that it is so 

 little known. 



In most Japanese botanical works the adsuki bean is confused 

 with the mung and therefore called PMseolus mungo or Phaseolus 



