Long-podded Dolichos. Dolichos sesquipedalis.
The Asparagus-bean, in its manner of growth, inflorescence, and in the size and character of its pods, is quite distinct from the class of beans before described. It is a native of Tropical America, and requires a long, warm season for its full perfection.
The stem is from six to seven feet high; the leaves are long, narrow, smooth, and shining; the flowers are large, greenish-yellow, and produced two or three together at the extremity of quite a long peduncle; the pods are nearly cylindrical, pale-green, pendent, and grow with remarkable rapidity,—when fully developed, they are eighteen or twenty inches long, and contain eight or nine seeds.
These should be sown as early in spring as the appearance of settled warm weather; and the plants will then blossom in ten or eleven weeks, afford pods for use in fourteen weeks, and ripen off their crop in gradual succession until destroyed by frost.
The ripe seeds are cinnamon-brown, with a narrow, dark line about the hilum; kidney-shaped, half an inch long, and a fourth of an inch broad: nearly four thousand are contained in a quart, and will plant four hundred and fifty hills.
The seeds are quite small, and are rarely eaten, either in a green or ripe state. The variety is cultivated exclusively for its long, peculiar pods, which are crisp, tender, of good flavor, and much esteemed for pickling. It is, however, much less productive than many of the running kinds of garden-beans, and must be considered more curious than really useful.
LIMA BEAN.
Phaseolus lunatus.
Stem ten feet or more in height; leaves comparatively long and narrow, smooth and shining; flowers small, greenish-yellow, in spikes; the pods are four inches and a half long, an inch and a quarter broad, much flattened, green and wrinkled while young, yellowish when ripe, and contain three or four beans.