ENTADA, in botany, a woody climber belonging to the family Leguminosae and common throughout the tropics. The best known species is Entada scandens, the nicker bean or sword bean, so called from its large woody pod, 2 to 4 ft. long and 3 to 4 in. broad, which contains large, flat, hard, polished, chestnut-coloured seeds, often made into snuff-boxes or match-boxes. A preparation from the kernel is used as a drug by the natives in India. The seeds will float for long in water, and are often thrown up on the north-western coasts of Europe, having been carried by the Gulf Stream from the West Indies ; they retain their vitality.