XVIII 
BEANS ORIGINATED IN THE TROPICS 
I SN'T IT ODD that the bean 
plant, which is a child of the 
tropics, has been pushed gradu¬ 
ally to the north and south until 
it has so adapted itself that it 
will grow throughout most of 
the civilized world! 
i 
As a matter of fact this bean 
plant is not very well qualified 
to broadcast itself and would never have spread far but 
for the aid of man. In the beginning it seems that beans 
grew only in very limited areas in Asia and America. 
When the bean vine made its seeds, they dropped to the 
ground beneath it instead of being scattered about, and 
so the variety did not spread. It had no such trick as the 
pine cone, which may roll far away before scattering out 
its seed, or the thistledown, which may ride the wind for 
miles. 
So the bean stayed in its native home until man learned 
that it was good to eat. When he first began cultivating 
crops, he took these beans from place to place and planted 
them. 
Being tropical plants, they had to come into the north 
gradually. In this generation a striking example has been 
given of a warm climate bean coming to grow where it 
is cold. 
36 
