THE FLORIDA VELVET BEAN AND ITS HISTORY. 27 
mation respecting its growth in this colony may be of interest to Queenslanders, 
as the previous notes were simply extracts from American journals, and the 
information they gave more applicable to American than to Queensland con- 
ditions. 
In the first place, the plant has been wrongly named, as it is not Dolichos 
multifiorus, but is recognized by Mr. F. M. Bailey, to whom I submitted speci- 
mens, as Mucuna pruriens, var. utilis, a variety of the plant commonly known 
as “ Cowhage™ or “ Cow-itch.”. The description already given of this plant is 
substantially correct, so I will simply refer my readers to the illustration here 
with,? which has been drawn by the artist to the department from a plant 
grown ” at the Redland Bay Experiment Farm.—Albert H. Benson in Queens- 
land Agricultural Journal, May, 1898, p. 370. 
VELVET Bean (Mucuna utilis).—Annual; climbing: stems sometimes 50 feet 
in length; leaflets 3, large; pods numerous, 2 to 3 inches long, each containing 
three or four large oval beans. 
A newly introduced plant which has not been extensively tested, but which 
has been highly recommended by the experiment stations of Louisiana and 
Florida.—United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Agrostology, 
Bulletin No. 15, “4 Report Upon the Forage Plants and Forage Resources of 
the Gulf States,” by S. M. Tracy. July 15, 1898. 
FLoripa VELVET BEAN.—Under this name a leguminous plant has been promi- 
nently recommended in American journals as a forage plant and as admirably 
adapted for green crop manuring. Recently the beans have been offered for 
sale in this country. As frequent references have been made to Kew, it is 
desirable to place on record what is known of the plant and its capabilities. As 
to its identity, it was from the first conjectured that the seeds belonged to 
a plant very near the common purple-flowered Cowhage or Cow-itch plant of 
the Tropics, Mucuna pruriens. The difficulty, in the absence of adequate speci- 
mens, in identifying it with this was the fact that in the Cow-itch plant the 
pods are densely covered with stinging hairs of a brownish color. <A _ plant 
so formidably armed, it was thought, could not safely be recommended for 
general cultivation. The name first given, Dolichos multifiorus (Dioclea boy- 
kinii), was clearly wrong. In these circumstances we are glad to find from 
the Queensland Agricultural Journal, volume ii, pages 370-371 (with a plate), 
that the plant has flowered and fruited in that colony, and that Mr. F. M. 
Bailey, F. L. S., the colonial botanist, has identified it as MWucuna pruriens, 
var. utilis. In this variety of the Cow-itch plant the pods are apparently 
devoid of stinging hairs. It is probably WV. utilis of Wallich, described in 
Flora of British India (vol. ii, p. 187) as “cultivated variety” with velvety 
not hairy pods. This is figured in Wight’s Icones (vol. i, t. 280). According 
to Watt’s Dictionary of the Economic Products of India. “the young, tender 
pods are cooked and eaten as a vegetable.” What may also prove to be the 
“same plant, with jet black seeds, is cultivated as a rotation crop on sugar 
estates in Mauritius under the name of “ Pois Mascate.” The accounts given 
by interested parties in America respecting the agricultural value of the 
Florida velvet bean must be received with caution—Kew Garden Bulletin 
of Miscellaneous Information No. 140, August, 1898, p. 207. 
THE FLoripA VELVET BEAN.—AsS I am receiving so many letters of inquiry 
from your readers about the Florida velvet bean, and being unable to answer 
each one separately, I would like to reply through the columns of your valuable 
and widely read paper. 
* There is a plate showing the velvet bean. 5 From American seed. 
141—1II 
