SYSTEMATIC BOTANY OF BEANS, AND THEIR ALLIES 



11 



the South, and though grown largely for forage and green 

 manure, the seeds of most varieties are used for food and 

 furnish an excellent vegetable. They are grown to a 

 slight extent in the warmer parts of New York and 

 probably could be grown to a greater extent with profit. 

 For table use the Blackeye and White are considered 

 the best varieties. A form of Blackeye known as 

 Extra Early Blackeye is best adapted to this State. 

 Both Blackeye and White are group names rather than 

 strict variety names, the first name applying to all forms 

 with white seeds having a black eye and the second to 

 those with creamy white seeds self colored or with a 

 greenish eye. The varieties forming these groups can 

 scarcely be distinguished. Though there seem to be 

 some differences in time of ripening, resistance to 

 disease, etc., the appearance of all is practically identical 

 within the groups. The catjang and asparagus bean 

 groups are more easily distinguished and undoubtedly 

 merit the subspecific rank here assigned them, but 

 extensive field tests with large numbers of types have 

 shown that they can scarcely be considered to merit 

 specific rank. It is quite possible that one or two other 

 types merit subspecific rank with the following forms, 

 but they have not been grown sufficiently long nor 

 widely enough to determine the constancy of their 

 characters. 



2. Vigna sinensis subsp. cylindrica Van Es. comb. nov. 

 Catjang. — Phaseolus cylindricus Stickm. Herb. Amb. in L. 

 Amoen. Acad. 4:132. 1759. Dolichos catjang. L. Manr. 2:269. 

 1771. Dolichos lubia Forsk. Fl. Aegypt.-Arab. 133. 1775. 

 Dolichos transquebaricus Jacq. Hort. Vindob. 3:39. 1776. 

 Vigna catjang Walpers, Linnaea 73:533. 1839. Vigna 

 cylindrica Skeels, U. S. D. A. Bur. PI. Ind. Bui. 282. 32. 1913. 



Usually erect or semi-bushy annuals but occasionally trailing; 

 resembling the preceding in foliage and flower characters but dif- 

 fering in fruit and seed; pods small 7.5 to 12.5 cm long, erect when 

 green and usually remaining so when dry or becoming spreading 

 or deflexed at maturity. Under American conditions the best 

 varieties are very late and not prolific. 



3. Vigna sinensis subsp. sesquipedalis Van Es. comb. nov. 

 Asparagus bean. — V. sinensis var. sesquipedalis Koern. ex 

 Asch. & Schw. ///. Fl. Egypt, in Mem. Inst. Egypt 2:69. 1889. 

 Dolichos sesquipedalis L. Sp. PI. ed. 2. 1019. 1763. Vigna 

 sesquipedalis Fruwirth, Anbau Hulsenfr. 254. 1898. 



Trailing, glabrous or glabrate annual vine; leaflets rhomboid; 

 flowers nearly white to violet purple, 2 to 2.5 cm long; calyx lobes 

 acuminate; pods pendent 30 to 90 cm long, fleshy and brittle, 

 becoming flabby and somewhat inflated, shrinking about the seeds 

 when dry; seeds elongate reniform, 8 to 12 mm long, widely separate, 

 color pure buff, clay, blackish violet, maroon, white yellowish or 

 pinkish, or marbled, spotted or speckled. 



The Asparagus bean forms an excellent table bean or 

 " snap bean " and certain varieties merit wider culture. 

 They are not equal to the better varieties of cowpeas 

 for seed production and forage. 



6. PHASEOLUS L. Sp. PI. 723. 1753.— 

 Cadelium Medic. Vorl. Ch. Ges. 2:352. 1787. 

 Phasellus Medic. 1. c. Caracalla Tod. Index Sem. 

 Hort. Panorm. (1861;. 32. 1862. Lipusa Alef. 

 Landw. FL 26. 1866. 



Mostly herbaceous vines, twining counterclockwise, but 

 occasionally woody and sometimes erect and bushy; pubescence 

 variable: leaves generally long stalked, stipules persistent; leaflets 3, 

 occasionally reduced to 1, entire, variable in shape; stipellate, 



nyctitropic by means of swollen articulations at the base of the 

 pedicels; flowers (see fig. 1) yellow, white, red or purplish, axillary 

 in few flowered racemes or spikes; peduncles usually with pedicel- 

 late glands; bracteoles (fig. l.b) always present; calyx (fig. I.e.) 

 5 lobed, the upper two lobes often connate; standard (fig. l.s.) 

 usually more or less orbicular and emarginate; wings (fig. l.a 1 & a-) 

 oblong to obovate; keel (fig. l.k) coiled in one or more close turns 

 (except in $ Sigmoidotropis where it is curled loosely like the 

 letter S): stamens ifig. l.f.) diadelphous, 9 and 1; pistils (fig. l.pj 

 on a short cup shaped disk; the style coiled with the keels bearded 

 within, the stigma oblique or lateral; pods terete or more or less 

 flattened, straight or falcate; seeds few to many, nearly globular to 

 reniform, germination epigeal or hypogeal. Chromosome No. 11 

 (in the species counted thus far). 



Fig. 1. A flower of the lima bean, King of the Garden, 'side 

 view above, and dissected to show parts below) b— bracteole. c-calyx. 

 a 1 and a— wings or alae. s-standard. k-keel (k'-with essential organs 

 included; k--keel alone), f-stamens, showing filament tube and free 

 stamen, p-pistil. 



About 100 species in warmer parts of America and 

 perhaps one-third as many in like regions of the Old 

 World. Of these, many are undoubtedly of local 

 importance for food, but only nine are widely cultivated. 

 Three American species, the common bean, the runner 

 bean, and the lima bean are of almost world-wide im- 

 portance, and the fourth, the tepary bean, is of consider- 

 able importance for hot semi-arid regions. These 

 species are treated in more or less detail in the following 

 chapter. The other five are Oriental beans of second- 

 ary importance as yet and are treated briefly following 

 the technical description of each species. 



KEY TO IMPORTANT SPECIES OF PHASEOLUS 

 Flowers yellow; left keel petal spurred; oriental annuals. 



Leaflets with 3 to 5 narrow deeply cut lobes. . 1. P. aconitifolius 

 Leaflets entire or shallowly lobed. 



Plants and pods very hairy; seeds mostly dull; germination 

 epigeal. 

 Branches spreading or procumbent; pods long hairy; seeds 

 oblong, testa not striate, hilum concave. 2. P. mungo 



