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It has nothing to do with OOP inheritance, it simply means "bean definition" inheritance. In other words, it's possible to inherit the properties from an other bean.

	<bean id="bike" class="org.davis.Motorbike">
		<property name="driver" ref="driver"/>
	</bean>
		
	<bean id="car" class="org.davis.Car" parent="bike">
		<property name="passenger" ref="passenger"/>
	</bean>

Here's an example with a list:

	<bean id="bike" class="org.davis.Motorbike" abstract="true">
		<property name="passengers">
			<list>
				<ref bean="passenger1"/>
			</list>
		</property>
	</bean>
	
	<bean id="car" class="org.davis.Car" parent="bike">
		<property name="passengers">
			<list merge="true">
				<ref bean="passenger2"/>
				<ref bean="passenger3"/>
			</list>
		</property>
	</bean>

The property merge is needed else the parent list would be overwritten.

The parent should be set as abstract, if you want to prevent it from being instantiated.