2 BULLETIN 318, IT, S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



ing as long as the conditions remain favorable. The^best bushy or 

 half-bushy sorts planted in 3-foot rows make much the same type 

 of growth as the cowpea, and under the same conditions will pro- 

 duce a greater yield of hay, which is more easily cured, owing to its 

 smaller moisture content. The plants are markedly drought resist- 

 ant, and under the conditions existing at Chillicothe, Tex., suffer 

 less from drought than cowpeas. 



| The bonavist is also well adapted to planting with corn or some 

 other supporting crop. In corn the vining habit of the plant be- 

 comes accentuated, and some of the more vigorous varieties will 

 grow across the rows, making a tangled mass difficult to handle when 

 cutting for silage. On the whole, however, the bonavist is closely 

 comparable to the cowpea in value for planting in corn. 



SEED PRODUCTION. 



The principal weakness of the bonavist, considered as a forage 

 crop, is the relatively poor yield of seed and the difficulty of har- 

 vesting the same, which makes it expensive. From a seed-produc- 

 tion standpoint the most desirable varieties are those in which the 

 pod retains its form when dry, as these are not much affected by 

 wet weather and thrash out rather easily. 



VARIETAL CHARACTERS. 



The bonavist varies in all its parts perhaps more than any other 

 legume, which fact accounts in part for its numerous botanical nanies. 

 This variation is, moreover, far greater than botanical diagnoses 

 have indicated, so that several varieties answer equally well to some 

 of the brief descriptions. The characters that distinguish varieties 

 in the bonavist may be briefly discussed as follows : 



Habit. — Most varieties are very viny, but a few strictly bush sorts occur. 

 The most vigorous kinds will climb on trellises to a height of 20 to 30 feet. 



Life period. — At Arlington Farm the earliest varieties ripen their first pods 

 in about 100 days. Many kinds are not even in bloom when killed by frost 

 after about 140 days. The wild plant is said by most writers to be perennial, 

 but the cultivated sorts are annuals. A variety commonly cultivated in the 

 Philippines as a vegetable endures there at least two years, and this is prob- 

 ably a common occurrence with the plant in the Tropics. 



Color of herbage. — In some varieties every part of the plant is more or less 

 deeply purple tinged, while in others there is no trace of this color. In a few 

 sorts only the stems, petioles, and principal leaf veins are purple. 



Pubescence. — Many varieties are covered with short, white hairs, so that the 

 foliage is pale and dull. Other sorts are bright green and nearly glabrous. 



Leaflets. — The leaflets vary considerably in size and color and to a slight 

 degree in shape. 



Flowers. — Two colors occur in the flowers, white and pink purple. There are 

 also differences in the size of the corolla and the degree of fragrance. More 

 striking are the differences in the length of the peduncle, the abundance of 



