12 



THE VEGETABLES OF NEW YORK 



Branches erect or ascending; pods short hairy; seeds globose 

 or nearly so; testa crenulate-striate, hilum not concave. 



3. I*. aureus 

 Plants and pods glabrate or lightly pubescent; seeds smooth 

 and shiny; germination hypogeal. 

 Racemes 10 to 20 flowered; pods not constricted between 



the seeds; hilum concave 4. P. calcaratus 



Racemes 6 to 12 flowered; pods constricted between the 



seeds; hilum not concave 5. P. annularis 



Flowers white, creamy, red or purplish; left keel petal not spurred; 

 American annuals and perennials. 

 Roots tuberous or much thickened; flowers numerous, large, 

 showy, scarlet or white on long naked peduncles; germination 



hypogeal 6. P. coccineus 



Roots fibrous; flowers smaller, white creamy, or purplish, (the 



larger types few on short peduncles), germination epigeal. 



Seed without conspicuous radiating lines, nearly circular in 



cross section; flowers 8 to 20 mm long, on short peduncles. 



Bracts small, deciduous; pods generally less than 8 cm long. 



7. P. acutifolius 

 Bracts large, persistent, about the length of the calyx; pod 



generally over 10 cm long 8. P. vulgaris 



Seed with conspicuous lines radiating from the hilum, flattened 

 elliptic in cross section; flowers 6 mm or less long, on long 

 peduncles 9. P. lunatus 



1. Phascolus acontifolius Jacq. Obs. Bot. 3:2. 

 1768. Moth Bean. 



Annual herb forming a mass about .5 m in diameter and 

 ?3 as tall; stem short; branches slender, decumbent, not twining; 

 leaflets narrowly 2-5 lobed; flowers yellow, small clustered on the 

 ends of axillary peduncles; pods 2.5-5 cm long, linear, subterete, 

 5 to 7 seeded; seed linear-oblong, nearly smooth, straw-colored, 

 occasionally marbled with black. 



The moth bean is an important crop in India where 

 reports give over half a million acres grown in Bombay 

 and the northern provinces. It does not seem to be 

 able to compete with other leguminous crops in America, 

 however. 



2. Phaseolus mungo L. Mant. 1:101. 1767. 

 Urd Bean. 



Low spreading annual with very hairy, usually procumbent, 

 rarely twining branches; stipules with a basal appendage; leaflets 

 more or less rhomboidal; flowers yellow, keel spirally coiled, a 

 hornlike appendage or spur on the side; pods very hairy; seeds 

 oblong, blackish to olive. 



The Urd or black gram is also grown in India about 

 as much as the preceding species. It is grown as a 

 green manure in Trinidad and is usually found used as 

 food by the Hindus wherever they have settled. It has 

 not been found equal to other legumes cultivated in the 

 United States and unless new and unique uses are found 

 for the plant it will probably not be used to any great 

 extent in America. 



3. Phascolus aureus Roxb. FJ. Ind. 3:297. 1832. 

 Mung Bean. Phaseolus mungo Auct. non L. 



Erect or suberect, pubescent annual 0.3 to 1.2 m tall; branches 

 numerous, sometimes twining at the tips; leaflets ovate, entire or 

 occasionally shallowly trilobate; flowers pale yellow, in clusters of 

 10 to 25; pods black or brownish, 6.5 to 10 cm long, 10 to 14 seeded; 

 seeds globose or oblong, usually green but occasionally marbled 

 with black, yellow, brown, or madder; seed coat crenulate striate. 

 Native to India. 



The mung bean is widely cultivated in southern 

 Asia, parts of Malaysia, and eastern Africa. It has been 

 introduced into China, Japan, Greece, the West Indies, 

 and southeastern United States. Consequently, it has 



acquired a large number of local names. It is known as 

 Green Gram, Golden Gram, Chiroko (East Africa), 

 Bundoor Yayenari (Japan), Mash (Arabia), Lan-ton 

 (China), Oregon or Chickasaw Pea, and doubtless 

 numerous other names of more restricted usage. The 

 name Oregon Pea, used in the South as early as 1854, 

 arose from a mistaken idea as to its origin. The name 

 Chickasaw Pea appeared at least 20 years earlier. 



The use of technical names has been quite as varied 

 as that of the common names, due largely to Linneaus' 

 confusion regarding the application of earlier designa- 

 tions and current common names. 



In 1753 he apparently assumed that the Arabian 

 " mash " applied to the soybean and that Dilleneus' 

 Phaseolus radiatus (which was the true mung) applied 

 to a related species which he grew at Upsala. In 1763 

 he evidently discovered that he had not named the 

 mung and described Phaseolus mungo. Unfortunately, 

 this plant was not the common mung of India, but a 

 form of the urd. Roxburgh about 70 years later, 

 while working in India, applied Linneaus' names, 

 assigning Phaseolus max and P. mungo to forms of 

 the mung and P. radiatus to the urd. He also gave a 

 new name, P. aureus, to one form of the mung. It is 

 this name which must stand for the mung, while Lin- 

 neaus' P. mungo is the valid name for the urd; the 

 specific name max must be held for the soybean; and 

 P. radiatus apparently is the proper name for a little- 

 known plant at one time known as P. sublobatus of 

 Roxburgh. The untangling of this nomenclatorial web 

 is due largely to the researches of Sir David Prain of 

 Kew and Professor C. V. Piper of the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture. (See U. S. D. A. Professional Paper 

 119. 1914. Five Oriental Species of Beans by 

 C. V. Piper and W. J. Morse.) 



According to Piper, " As a field crop the mung is 

 directly comparable to the cowpea and soybean and it 

 has nowhere proved superior to these." 



4. Phascolus calcaratus Roxb. Fl. Ind. 3:289. 

 1832. Rice Bean. 



Annual herb, with stems 30 to 60 cm high and long twining 

 prostrate branches 1 to 2 m long; leafs resembling those of P. 

 vulgaris but the leaflets sometimes shallowly 3-lobed: flowers 

 small, bright yellow; in clusters of 10-20; keel coiled, spurred on 

 left petal; style hairy, prolonged in a narrow terete appendage; 

 7 to 10 cm long; pods smooth, slender, falcate, straw colored, 

 brownish or blackish; seeds 6 to 10, 5 to 8 mm long, straw colored, 

 greenish, brownish, maroon or black. Native to India. 



The following forms have been described by Prain, Jour. 

 As. Soc. Bengal. 66:22. 424, 425. 1897: 



(a) glabra Prain /. c. 424 (P. glaber Roxb.) has glabrous stems 

 and leaves. 



(b) major Prain /. c. 424 has larger flowers. 



(c) Rumbaiya Prain /. c. 424 has short erect or spreading stems 

 f probably P. torosus Roxb. I 



(d) gracilis Prain /. c. 425 a wild form with slender, smooth stems 

 and narrow leaflets. 



The rice bean is cultivated to some extent in eastern 

 and southern Asia, in parts of Malaysia and in Mauritius, 

 but despite the fact that it has been naturalized in 

 Alabama for over 25 years, it seems doubtful that it 

 will compete successfully with the cowpea. 



