CHAPTER IX.
LEGUMINOUS PLANTS.
American Garden-bean. Asparagus-bean. Lima Bean. Scarlet-runner. Sieva. Chick-pea. Chickling Vetch. English Bean. Lentil. Lupine. Pea. Pea-nut. Vetch, or Tare. Winged Pea.
AMERICAN GARDEN-BEAN.
French Bean. Kidney-bean. Haricot, of the French. Phaseolus vulgaris.
The Common Garden-bean of the United States is identical with the French or Kidney Bean of England and France, and is quite distinct from the English or Garden Bean of French and English catalogues.
The American Garden-bean is a tender, annual plant from the East Indies, with a dwarfish or climbing stem and trifoliate leaves. The flowers are variable in color, and produced in loose clusters; the seeds are produced in long, flattened, or cylindrical, bivalved pods, and vary, in a remarkable degree, in their size, form, and color,—their germinative powers are retained three or four years.
As catalogued by seedsmen, the varieties are divided in two classes,—the Dwarfs, and the Pole or Running Sorts.
Dwarfs.—The plants of this class vary from a foot to two feet in height. They require no stakes or poles for their support; and are grown in hills or drills, as may suit the taste or convenience of the cultivator.