LEGUMEN, or POD, in Botany; a species of feed-vessel which has two valves or external openings enclosing a number of seeds that are fastened along one future only. In this last circumstance the feed-vessel in question differs from that termed by botanists siligua, in which the enclosed seeds are fastened alternately to both the futures 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.