I have received a short letter from Summerside, worded as follows: “Dear Sir, ─ I am enclosing a leaf in the hope you may identify it. The plant was not in bloom when I saw it. It seemed to be a climber of some sort with bean-like leaves. The seed was found in a packet of tea, and the lady who found it said it looked just like a bean. If you could reply through your Newsy Notes I should be Obliged. Yours truly —”
This is quite a task, for leaves from different plants may be sufficiently alike to puzzle an expert ─ which the writer does not profess to be. Moreover as the seed was found among tea, it is reasonable to suppose the plant is tropical and therefore more difficult to identify without special books! One longs for Sherlock Holme’s double-peaked cap!
Ah, I’ve got it! I recall half a century ago I grew in my glass house, a climber called the Hyacinth-bean ─ a native of india. Its botanical name was Dolichos Lablab, an odd name, and easy for me to remember. Turning to Seymour’s “New Garden Encyclopedia” I gather that the plant has trifoliate (3-leaflets) leaves, climbs to about 10 feet high, adn bears stiff spikes of reddish-purple flowers. There is a form with white flowers). These are followed by attractive seed pods, so that this climber is grown as an ornamental in the U.S. Possibly our season is too short for it to bloom; I should be glad to hear how the plant succeeds. In the tropics the beans are grown for food. not for ornament.
– Newsy Notes by Agricola, August 31st, 1946