Phaseolus
(the old Greek name used by Dioscorides, probably from phaselus, a little boat; referring to a supposed resemblance in the pods). Kidney Bean. ORD. Leguminosae. A rather extensive genus (about sixty species) of twining, prostrate, or short and erect, stove, greenhouse, or hardy, annual or perennial herbs, rarely woody at base, broadly dispersed over the warmer regions of the globe. Flowers white, yellow, red, violet, or purplish, fasciculately racemose on knot-like protuberances above the middle of the axillary peduncles; upper calyx lobes or teeth connate or free; standard orbiculate; wings obovate or rarely oblong; keel linear or obovate, terminating in a long, spirally-twisted point. Pods linear or falcate, sub-terete or compressed. Leaves pinnately trifoliolate, stipellate, very rarely unifoliolate; stipules persistent, striated; bracts often caducous, stipuliform or small; bracteoles often broad. Few of the species are of any horticultural value. For culture of P. vulgaris, see Beans. The stove species require similar treatment to Dolichos (which see).
P. Caracalla (Caracalla). Climbing Snail Flower. fl. purple and yellowish mixed, large; vexillum and carina spirally twisted; racemes longer than the leaves. August. l., leaflets ovate-rhomboid, acuminated. India, 1690. Plant twining, hardly pubescent. Stove perennial. (A. B. R. 341; B. R. 341.) P. lobatus (lobed-leaved). fl. yellow, in dense racemes; peduncles axillary, solitary, many-flowered; standard and wings more or less twisted; keel with an extraordinary, spirally-twisted, acuminate point. September. l. copious, ternate; leaflets hastately trilobed, the terminal one on a long footstalk, the lateral ones almost sessile. Stem twining. Buenos Ayres. Greenhouse perennial. (B. M. 4076.) P. semi-erectus (slightly-erect). fl., vexillum greenish, tinged with purple; keel purple in the middle, but white on the sides; wings deep purple; peduncles elongated. July. l., leaflets ovate-lanceolate, acute, glabrous. Stems twining at the apex. South America, 1781. Stove annual. (B. R. 743.) P. vulgaris (common). Dwarf, or French Kidney Bean. fl. variable, usually white or lilac; racemes pedunculate, shorter than the leaves; pedicels twin. June to September. l., leaflets ovate, acuminated. Plant twining, smoothish. Tropical and temperate regions; "universally cultivated, but not anywhere clearly known as a wild plant" (Baker). 1597. Tender annual. See also Beans. P. v. multiflorus (many-flowered). Scarlet Runner. This differs from the type by its bright scarlet, casually white, flowers, arranged in long racemes, which often overtop the leaves. See Beans.