1. The ordinary name given to two species of Phaseolus (N.O. Leguminosæ), known as the dwarf French bean (P. vulgaris), and the Scarlet Runner (P. multiflorus), of which the unripened pods and the ripe seeds are used as food: see BEAN 3.
1548. Turner, Names of Herbes, 75. Smilax hortensis … may be called in english Kydney beane, because the seede is lyke a Kydney.
1548–62. [see BEAN 3].
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 570. The Pulse called Phaseoli, i. Kidney Beans vse to be eaten cod and al together.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, i. in Aliments, etc. 251. Beans and Kidney-Beans have the same Qualities.
1882. Garden, 1 April, 222/2. Few plants are more tender early in the season than Kidney Beans.
2. Kidney-bean tree. A climbing shrub of the leguminous genus Wistaria as the American species, W. frutescens, and the Chinese, W. chinensis, both grown as wall-climbers in Great Britain.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. iii. 380. There are several other Trees and Shrubs which are now in Flower, as … Catesby’s Climber, or Carolina Kidney-Bean-tree.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 306. Kidney Bean-tree of Carolina, Glycine.
1897. Britton & Brown, Flora North. States Canada, II. 294. Krauntia frutescens—American Wisteria … Called also Kidney-bean Tree.
