Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BEAN, n. [Sax. bean; Dan. bönne; Sw. böna; Gr. πυανον; D. boon; Ger. bohne; Ch. אפון, apun, a vetch. Qu. Arm. favon; Corn. id.; W. faen.]

A name given to several kinds of pulse, or leguminous seeds, and the plants producing them. They belong to several genera, particularly Vicia, Phaseolus, and Dolichos. The varieties most usually cultivated are, the horse bean, the mazagan, the kidney bean, the cranberry bean, the lima bean, the frost bean, &c. The stalk is erect or climbing, and the fruit generally roundish, oval or flat, and of various colors. Malacca Beans. Anacardia, the fruit of a tree growing in Malabar, and other parts of the Indies. This fruit is of a shining black color, of the shape of a heart flattened, about an inch long, terminating at one end in an obtuse point, and at the other, adhering to a wrinkled stalk. It contains within two shells, a kernel of a sweetish taste; and betwixt the shells is lodged a thick acrid juice. – Encyc.