BEANS ORIGINATED IN THE TROPICS 
To Florida a generation ago there came a new bean out 
of the tropics. It was called the velvet bean. It had a 
very rapid growth and produced a heavy crop chiefly 
used for feeding cattle. 
Because of its rapid growth people carried this velvet 
bean to North Carolina and planted it about their porches 
for shade. It served this purpose very well, but it never 
produced any beans. North Carolina was too cold for it. 
The summer was too short for it to ripen its crop before 
the frosts came in the autumn. The people of North 
Carolina had to send back to Florida every year for new 
seed of this vine to plant about their porches. 
But finally some one noticed that a single plant of the 
velvet bean actually had set and matured its seeds in 
North Carolina. He knew that this plant was one of 
those unusual individuals that crop out once in a while 
and have qualities different from others of its kind. 
These seeds were planted and developed a race of velvet 
beans that would grow in a tier of states farther north 
than did their ancestors. 
So was brought to those states a new crop that yielded 
them millions of dollars a year. So also was a demonstra¬ 
tion made of the manner in which tropical plants may 
spread gradually into the colder regions. 
37 
