The * Bi RL STal saree PRR aR B Age 287 
Authors defcribe the garden-bean under the 
name of Faba hortenfis, as if a fpecies difting 
from this: and upon a like principle we fee 
that garden-bean itfelf divided into innumerable 
other kinds. The truth is, all thefe are the off- 
fpring of induftry and good culture: the garden-’ 
dean is no more than the horfe-bean, improved 
from time to time by careful management ; and 
all the others are again the fame kind of varia- 
tions from that. E 
In a treatife of gardening, it would be proper to 
enumerate and diftinguih thefe fevera] varieties : 
but the ftudent in botany is to know there is but one 
fpecies of bean. ‘The plantis the fame in ftalk, leaf, 
flower, and fruit, the fize and the degree of flat- 
nefs only excepted ; and its ufes and qualities are 
the fame, whether it be taken from the field or the 
garden, or whether it flower in May or Auguft. 
The bean, like the pea, is a very wholefome 
food ; but it alfo ferves the purpofes of medicine, 
The whole Jean, ground to flour with its fhell, 
and taken internally, by way of medicine, is found 
to be an aftringent of a ufeful kind. Diarrhzas 
of the worft fort, and even dyfenteries, have 
been cured by it. It is alfo good againft the 
diabetes. : é 
A pultice of dean flour externally is ufed in fwel- 
lings ; and the infide of the freth fhells rubbed on 
warts will take them off. The fame method of 
ufing them will alfo take fpots off the face. 
Many have written againft deans, declaring 
them flatulent, difficult of digeftion, and bad for 
the head : but nothing can be more idle than this 
learned preaching again& a pulfe in common ufe 
as food for ourfelves and our cattle, and found 
upon repeated experience wholefome to both. 
Pythagoras is quoted with a moft reverend 
ignorance by thofe who write againft the eating 
of them. He indeed direéted his pupils to abftain 
from beans ; but this not becaufe they were bad 
for the head, as Solinus thinks; nor becaufe the 
fouls of the dead pafied into them, as Pliny 
dreamed. Plutarch might have fet thofe later 
commentators right, who have made fo many 
' wild conjectures about this fhort precept, the 
| meaning of which was, Meddle not in party - 
matters. The antients elected their officers by 
ballot, and beans were the balls. 
It is fuppofed the bean of the antients was not 
the fame with ours, and many gueffes as wild and 
as unnatural have been made on that head as the 
former. The reafon of the fuppofition is, that 
they always fpeak of thedried dear as being round. 
The art of our gardeners has flatted out the Wind- 
Jor beans they lived before this improvement of 
the bean was introduced; and we fee in the dry 
{mall Beans of the fame kind, a fhape which in 
_general terms might not abfurdly or unnaturally 
be called round. The plant was beyond doubt 
the fame. 
GUS BE SINS UES VII, 
LIQUORICE. 
GLYCYRRAIZA 
HE flower is papilionaceous, and compofed of four petals. The vexillum is oblong, ftrait, 
and {malleft at the top. The ala are oblong, and of a plain, fimple ftructure. The carina is 
fharp, and is fplit all the way up; and it is of the’ fame fize with the ala. ; The cup is formed of a 
fingle hollow piece, divided rudely into two lips at'the edge: the upper lip is broke into three parts ; 
of which the middle one is fhorter and broader than the others, and is fplit'at the end: the lower 
lip is ftrait, narrow, and of a fimple ftructure. 
feeds are few, and of a kidney-like fhape, 
The pod is oblong, compreffed, and acute: the 
Linnzus places this among the diadelphia decandria ; the threads in the flower being ten, and ar- 
ranged in two parcels, nine in one, and a fingle one in the other. 
DalweleselcOuN. | 
Common Liquorice. 
Gheyrrbiza vulgaris filiquis glabris, 
The root is very long and creeping; of the 
- thicknels of a finger, and of a tender, juicy fub- 
ftance : it is of a dufky brown on the outfide, of 
a fine yellow within, andof a {weet tafte, 
The ftalk is round, firm, upright, not much 
branched, and four feet high. Hy 
The leaves are long, large, and regularly pin- 
nated: each is compofed of eight or more pairs 
of pinnae; and thefe are oblong,. narrow, and 
pointed at the ends, and of a pale green: they 
refemble the leaves of the afh-tree, but are 
aie flowers grow on long and flender foot- 
{talks rifing from the bofoms of the leaves, feve- 
ral on each: they are {mall and bluifh. 
BRT Piss SP EC ips: 
The pods are oblong, flender, and of a pale 
green: the feeds are large and brown. | 
It is faid to have been found wild in the nor- 
thern parts of the kingdom: but, like other 
plants frequently and commonly cultivated in our 
‘fields, it'is not eafy to fay whether it be truly a 
native or not: probably enough it may be fo; for 
it is evidently wild’ in’ other countries, in which 
the degrees of heat’ and cold are about equal to 
this. / ‘ , 
It flowers in September ; but with us it does 
not produce its flowers and fruit fo-freely as in 
fome other places. Indeed Nature has made fo 
good a provifion for the multiplying this plant by 
root, that it no where ripens its feeds in iuch 
abundance as thofe that can only be propagated 
that way. i : - 
£ .) G, Bauhing: 
