P H A 
numerous. Difcovered by the Rev. Dr. Abbot in cart- 
ruts in woods about Bedford. It is annual, bearing cap- 
fules all winter long. The Items are more orlefs divided 
into fpreading leafy branches, clothed with fmall alter¬ 
nate leaves, and crowned with a large tuft of large ones. 
4. Phafcum bryoides, or tall earth-mofs : Item fimple; 
leaves ovate, hair pointed, upright; capfule elliptical, 
beaked; fruit.ftalk eredt, ftraight, taller than the leaves. 
Found by Mr. Dickfon in heathy woody places, and by 
Dr. Abbot at Clapham-fprings, Bedfordfliire. It is an¬ 
nual, arriving at perfedtion in the fpring, and diftinguifhed 
from molt of its genus, though eafily confounded with 
feveral fpecies of other genera, by its elongated fruit- 
ftalk, refembling thofe of modes in general. The cap¬ 
fule too has a more elongated beak than molt others, but 
no feparate lid. 
5. Phafcum muticum, or common dwarf earth-mofs : 
Item none; leaves ovate, concave, clofely imbricated, 
beardlels ; the upper ones ferrated towards the point; 
capfule globofe, nearly fedile. This is among the fmallelt, 
as well as the moll dmple in flrudture. It covers expofed 
banks, in the early fpring, and is confpicuous fora tawny, 
though Ihining, green hue, whofe brilliancy is enhanced 
by the dew imprifoned in the concave pellucid foliage. 
The roots are fibrous, and fo entangled, that they have 
a creeping appearance ; but we fufpedt each fructifying 
portion to be a diftindt plant. The want of a terminal 
hair to the leaves, fome of the larger of which have been 
obferved by Mr. J. D. Sowerby to be ferrated or toothed, 
the more diminutive dze of the whole plant, and the ab- 
folute want of a Item, diftinguifh the prefent fpecies from 
the equally common Pli. cufpidatum of Hedwig, with 
which it was confounded by Linnaeus, Hudfon, and 
others, under the name of acaulon. This is diown in its na¬ 
tural date at fig. 3. and a fingle head magnified at fig. 4. 
6. Phafcum ferratum, or ferrated earth-mofs: item 
none; fihoots fpreading, repeatedly branched, capillary, 
jointed, barren 5 leaves lanceolate, acute, ferrated. Schre- 
ber, who difcovered this extremely-minute fpecies, in 
rich moid meadows near Leiplic, could not fail to obferve 
the fibrous jointed (hoots that always accompany it; but 
liemidook them for BylTus, or rather Conferva velutina, 
(Engl. Bot. t. 1556.) Mr. Dickfon firft detedted the true 
nature of thefe appendages, to which we have adverted 
above. The root is fmall, annual, and fibrous, throwing 
out from its crown a number of fuch branched filaments; 
fo that feveral plants, growing near each other, appear 
feated on a bed of Conferva, compofed in reality of their 
own intermingled dioots. Each has no true Item. Four 
or five lanceolate, drongly ferrated, pellucid, leaves rife 
from the crown of the root, and envelop a nearly-fpdile, 
ovate, brown, pointed, capfule, whofe veil is, above all 
others, minute and evanefcent. 
7. Phafcum doloniferum, or branching-rooted earth- 
mofs : dem creeping, jointed, branched; dioots fpread¬ 
ing, branched, capillary, jointed, barren; leaves lanceo¬ 
late, pointed, toothed. Fird difcovered by Mr. Edward 
Foder, near Walthamdow. Mr. G. Don has found the 
fame in Scotland; and Mr. Turner, who confiders it as a 
variety of the lad, in Ireland. It grows on naked clay, 
in damp places, and is diftinguifhed from the preceding, 
chiefiy or entirely, by the truly creeping roots, which do 
indeed appear to originate from the jointed filaments, 
above defcribed, taking upon themfelves the nature of 
roots. How far this is podible, we are too imperfectly 
acquainted with thefe minute, though highly-curious, 
productions, to declare with any degree of certainty. 
PHAS'ELIS, in ancient geography, a town of Paledine, 
in the tribe of Benjamin, fituated north of the plain of 
Jericho, upon the banks of the river Carith, three leagues 
from the Jordan; faid to have been built by Herod in 
honour of his brother Phafelus. 
PH ASE'OLIS ACCE'DENS. See Piscidia. 
PHASEOLOI'DES. See Glycine. 
PHASE'OLUS, f. [Gr. a name fuppofed to allude to 
Vol. XX. No. 1350. 
P H A 57 
the diape of the pod, or feed-veflel, which refembles a 
kind of fmall boat, known under the fame denomination, 
and which was ufed in the Mediterranean, and efpecially 
about the mouths of the Nile. Virg. Geor. iv. 289.] 
Kidney-bean; in botany, a genus of the clafs diadel- 
phia, order decandria, natural order of papilionaceae or 
leguminofte. Generic characters—Calyx: perianthium 
one-leafed, two-lipped, upper lip emarginate; lower 
three-toothed. Corolla papilionaceous ; banner lieart- 
diaped, blunt, emarginate, reclined ; the fide bent back ; 
wings ovate, the length of the banner, placed on long 
claws; keel narrow', rolled fpirally contrary to the fun. 
Stamina: filaments diadelphous, (fimple and nine-cleft,) 
within the keel, fpiralanther® ten, fimple. Piftillum : 
germ oblong, compreffed, villofe; ftyle filiform, bent in 
fpirally, pubefcent above ; (tigma blunt, thickifh, villofe. 
Pericarpium ; legume long, ftraight, coriaceous, blunt 
with a point. Seeds kidney-form, oblong, compreffed. 
See Botany, Plate VIII. fig. 46.— Efjential Character. 
Keel with the ftamens and ftyles fpirally twifted; ftigma 
downy. 
Ray has enumerated 119 fpecies of Phafeolus, namely 
31 in the firlt volume of his Hiftory, and 88 in his third 
volume, or Supplement; befides fome Brafilian forts from 
Pifo, &c. Doubtlefs many of thefe are varieties; and 
many do not belong to this genus ; the genus Dolichos 
not being conftituted in his time. The ipecies are now 
reduced to twenty-one, in two divifions. 
I. Stem climbing and twining. 
r. Phafeolus vulgaris, or common kidney-bean, or 
French bean, (in French, haricot-hlanc:) item twining ; 
flowers racemed in pairs; braCtes fpreading, larger than 
the calyx 5 legumes pendulous. Stem more or lefs twi¬ 
ning, but in fome of the cultivated dwarf-varieties fcarce 
at all fo, quite fimple or unbranched. Leaves ternate, 
acuminate, rounded at the bale, rough, on long petioles. 
Flowers axillary, in tw’in-racemes, orelfe on twin-petioles. 
Corolla white, yellow', purple, or red. The banner has 
a callus, but a fmall one, and placed near the edge above 
the claw'. There is a white nedtariferous fcale between 
the claw of the banner and the fingle ftamen, bent up¬ 
wards, and growing to the filament: befides this, an 
obliquely bell-fliaped, pellucid, ftriated nedtary furrounds 
the pedicel of the germ within the connate filament : the 
fize of this differs in the feveral varieties. Legume ob¬ 
long, fwelling a little at the feeds, when ripe one-celled. 
Seeds feveral, ovate or oblong, kidney-fhaped, fmootn 
and ftiining : they vary exceedingly in fhape and fize, 
but particularly in colour, being white, black, blue, red, 
and varioufly fpotted. 
The common kidney-bear, is a native of both Indies. 
It was commonly cultivated here in the time of Gerard 
(1597); buthe does not fpeak of any dwarf-varieties, 
only of fuch as “ grow to a very great length, being fown 
near to long poles faftened hard by them, or hard by 
arbors or banquetting places; otherwife they lie fiat on 
the ground.” Parkinfon, in 1629, fays that the variety 
with white flow'ers and feeds was then inoft ufual in the 
gardens ; and that “ kidney-beans boiled in water and 
Hewed with butter, were elteemed more favory meat to 
many men’s palates than the common garden-bean, and 
were a difh more oftentimes at rich men’s tables than at 
the poor.” This pulfe is eaten at two different periods: 
in f’ummer, with the enwrapping pod which is ftill green 
and tender; in autumn and winter, when the bean, in 
full maturity, is taken out of, and boiled without, the 
pod. Kidney-beans are or were alfo called fperage beans ; 
by fome fafelles, or long peafon; and Roman beans, a 
mif-tranflation of fives (le rame, from ramus, Lat. the 
twig or pole round or up which the plant loves to climb. 
(Tabula Cibaria.) 
The varieties of the kidney-bean are very numerous: 
Mr. Miller mentions only the fmall white dwarf, the 
black dwarf or negro, and the liver-coloured bean, for 
Q early 
