FIVE ORIENTAL SPECIES OF BEANS. 3 
will perhaps depend more on their acceptability as human food than 
on their value for other purposes. 
The adaptations of these five species of beans are very similar 
to those of the cowpea, all requiring hot summer weather for their 
satisfactory development. The varieties of the mung and the urd 
are fairly numerous; some early, others late. The moth has but 
few varieties and all are rather late, so they will not mature as far 
north as Virginia. The adsuki produces numerous early varieties 
and some of these will probably ripen wherever the common bean 
will mature. Generally speaking, the mung, urd, moth, and rice 
beans are to be compared to the cowpea, while the adsuki is to be 
contrasted with the common bean. 
THE ADSUKI BEAN. 
The adsuki bean (Phaseolus angularis (Willd.) W. F. Wight; 
Pl. I) is much cultivated for human food in Japan and Chosen and to 
a less extent in China and Manchuria, but is apparently unknown 
in India and elsewhere in Asia. No mention of its cultivation in 
Europe has been found in agricultural literature. 
Next to the soy bean it seems to be the most important legume 
srown in Japan. In 1910 the respective acreage and production 
of these two crops in that country were given as follows: 
; Produc- Yield 
Exon: Area. tion. per acre. 
English 
Acres. quarters. | Pounds. 
INGR DI CRBs Saane cocoa So ss SeSOnrE obeeobeO Lis beeaeS Gaeoe pore teare 345, 634 598, 794 969 
SHO. LOREEN antes Set aa ese gia RU et PN SE SEE EL 6S ot a ee Or ee ee ee 1,171, 438 | 2,105, 964 1, 002 
From these figures the average yield per acre of adsuki beans 
is shown to be but little inferior to that of soy beans. 
BOTANY AND HISTORY. 
The first knowledge of the adsuki, or atsuki, bean to Europeans is 
the brief description by Kaempfer (1712, fasc. 5, p. 837). Kaempfer’s 
drawing of the plant was later published by Banks (Kaempfer, 1791, 
pl. 40). This illustration is excellent and unmistakable. On the 
basis of Kaempfer’s description and illustration Willdenow (1801, 
p. 1051) named the plant Dolichos angularis. While the species is 
clearly and abundantly distinct, it has been confused with related 
species by most botanists. 
No doubt the botanical confusion of the adsuki bean with the mung 
and the urd is responsible to some extent for the fact that it is so 
little known. 
In most Japanese botanical works the adsuki bean is confused 
with the mung and therefore called Phaseolus mungo or Phaseolus 
