BEAN, the seed of certain leguminous plants cultivated for food all over the world, and furnished chiefly by the genera Vicia, Phaseolus, Dolichos and Glycine. The common or broad bean, in all its varieties, as cultivated in Great Britain and on the conti nent of Europe, is the produce of Vicia Faba. The French bean, kidney bean or haricot, which is the common bean of the United States, is the seed of Phaseolus vulgaris. In India several other species of Phaseolus are raised, and form no small portion of the diet of the inhabitants. Besides these, there are numerous other pulses cultivated for the food both of man and domestic ani mals, to which the name bean is frequently given. The common bean (Vicia Faba) is more nutritious than wheat; and it contains a very high proportion of nitrogenous matter under the form of legumin, which amounts on an average to 24%. It is, however, a rather coarse food, and difficult of digestion, and is chiefly used to feed horses, for which it is admirably adapted. In England, French beans are chiefly, almost exclusively, used in the green state; the whole pod being eaten as a table vegetable or prepared as a pickle.
The common or broad bean (Vicia Faba) is an annual which has been cultivated from prehistoric times for its nutritious seeds. The lake-dwellers of Switzerland and northern Italy, in the bronze age, cultivated a small-fruited variety, and it was grown in ancient Egypt, though, according to Herodotus, regarded by the priests as unclean. The ancient Greeks called it huaµos, the Latins faba, but there is no suggestion that the plant is a native of Europe. Alphonse de Candolle (Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 320) con cludes that the bean was introduced into Europe probably by the western Aryans at the time of their earliest migrations. He sug gests that its wild habitat was two-fold some thousands of years ago, one of the centres being on the south of the Caspian, the other in the north of Africa, and that its area has long been in process of diminution and extinction. The nature of the plant favours this hypothesis, for its seed has no means of dispersing itself, and rodents or other animals can easily make prey of it; the struggle for existence which was going against this plant as against maize would have gradually isolated it and caused it to disappear, if man had not saved it by cultivation. It was intro duced into China a little before the Christian era, later into Japan, and more recently into India, though it has been suggested that in parts of the higher Himalayas its cultivation has survived from very ancient times.
The broad bean is a plant which will flourish in all ordinary good garden soil. The seeds are sown about 4 in. apart, in drills ft. asunder for the smaller and 3 ft. for the larger sorts. The soil should, preferably, be a rather heavy loam, deeply worked and well enriched. For an early crop, seeds may be sown in November and protected during winter in the same manner as early peas. An early crop may also be obtained by dibbling in the seeds in November, sheltering by a frame, and in February transplanting them to a warm border. Successional crops are obtained by sowing suitable varieties from January to the end of June. All the culture necessary is that the earth be drawn up about the stems. The plants are usually topped when the pods have set, as this not only removes the black aphides which often settle there, but is also found to promote the filling of the pods.
The kidney, French or haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), an annual, usually dwarf and bushy but in some varieties vine-like and twining in growth, is widely cultivated in temperate, sub tropical and tropical regions, but is nowhere known as a wild plant. It was long supposed to be of Indian origin, an idea which was disproved by Alphonse de Candolle, who sums up the facts bearing on its origin as follows : Phaseolus vulgaris has not been long cultivated in India, the south-west of Asia and Egypt, and it is not certain that it was known in Europe before the dis covery of America. At the latter epoch the number of varieties in European gardens suddenly in creased, and all authors began to mention them. The majority of the species of the genus exist in South America, and seeds apparently belonging to the species in question have been found in Peruvian tombs of an uncertain date, intermixed with many species, all American. Hence it is prob able that the plant is of South American origin.
The kidney bean is a tender annual, and should be grown in a rich light loamy soil and a warm sheltered situation. The soil should be well enriched with hot-bed dung. The earliest crop may be sown by the end of March or beginning of April. If, however, the temperature of the soil is below 45°, the beans make but little progress. The main crops should be got in early in May; and a later sowing may be made early in July. The earlier plant ings may be sown in small pots and put in frames or houses, until they can be safely planted out-of-doors. A light covering of straw or some other simple shelter suffices to protect from late frosts. The seeds should be covered i 2 or 2 in. deep, the dis tance between the rows being about 2 ft., or for the dwarf sorts 18 in., and that between plants from 4-6 inches. The pods may be used as a green vegetable, in which case they should be gathered whilst they are so crisp as to be readily snapped in two when bent; but when the dry seeds are to be used the pods should be allowed to ripen. As the green pods are gathered others will continue to be formed in abundance, but if old seed-forming pods are allowed to remain the formation of young ones will be greatly checked. There are numerous varieties; among the best are Canadian Wonder, Canterbury and Black Negro.
The scarlet runner (Phaseolus multiflorus or P. coccineus), a runner bean, is nearly allied to P. vulgaris, of which it is some times regarded as a variety, but differs in its tall climbing habit. It is naturally perennial and has a thick fleshy root, but is grown in Great Britain as a tender annual. Its bright, generally scarlet flowers, arranged in long racemes, and the fact that it will flourish in any ordinary good garden soil, combine to make it a favourite garden plant. It is also of interest as being one of the few plants that twine in a direction contrary to the apparent motion of the sun. The seeds of the runner beans should be sown in an open plot,---the first sowing in May, another at the beginning of June, and a third about the middle of June. In the London market gardens they are sown 8-12 in. apart in 4-ft. rows if the soil is good. The twining tops are pinched or cut off when the plants are from 2-24 ft. high, to save the expense of staking. It is better, however, in private gardens to have the rows standing separately, and to support the plants by stakes 6 or 7 ft. high and about a foot apart, the tops of the stakes being crossed about one-third down. If the weather is dry when the pods are form ing abundantly, plenty of tepid water should be supplied to the plants. In training the shoots to their supports, they should be twined from right to left, contrary to the course of the sun, or they will not lay hold. By frequently picking the pods the plants are encouraged to form fresh blooms from which pods may be picked until the approach of frost.
The Lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus or P. limensis), a tall bien nial with dwarf varieties, bearing a scimitar-shaped pod 2-3 in. long containing a few large seeds, is widely cultivated in the warmer parts of the world.
The young pods of the lablab, a leguminous climbing herb (Dolichos Lablab), as well as the seeds, are widely used in the tropics. The plant is probably a native of equatorial Africa, but is now generally cultivated in the tropical countries. The seed of the horse gram (D. biflorus) is eaten by the poorer classes in India, and is also, as are the pods, a food for horses and cattle. The soy bean (Glycine Soja, G. hispida or G. Max) is exten sively cultivated in China and Japan, chiefly for the pleasant flavoured seed, from which is prepared a piquant sauce. It is also widely grown in India, where the bean is eaten, while the plant forms a valuable fodder; it is extensively cultivated also in the United States for fodder, as a soil-improvement crop, and the seed is used for feed and for oil.
Other references to beans will be found under special head ings, such as CALABAR BEAN, LOCUST-TREE. There are also sev eral nonleguminous seeds to which the popular name bean is attached. Among these may be mentioned the sacred Egyptian or Pythagorean bean (Nelumbium speciosum), and the Ignatius bean (Strychnos Ignatii), a source of strychnine.
The ancient Greeks and Romans made use of beans in gather ing the votes of the people, and for the election of magistrates. A white bean signified absolution, and a black one condemnation. Beans had a mysterious use in the lernuralia and parentalia, where the master of the family, after washing his hands three times, threw black beans over his head nine times, reiterating the words "I redeem myself and my family by these beans."