LEGUMEN, or POD, in botany; a species of feed-vessel which has two valves or external openings inclosing a number of seeds that are fastened along one suture only. In this last circumstance the feed-vessel in question differs from that termed by botanists filiqua, in which the inclosed seeds are fastened alternately to both the sutures or joinings of the pod.
The feed-vessel of all the pea bloom or butterfly-shaped flowers, the diadelphia of Linnaeus, is of this pod kind. Such, for instance, is the feed-vessel of the pea, vetch, lupine, and broom.