RECENT CHINESE VEGETABLES. 197 



constricted pods, as shown in the illustration (p. 198) The pods 

 "shell " very hard, and there is a tendency to develop a broad 

 border or margin along the lower side. The peas are small and 

 are variable in color, and they generally turn dark in cooking. 

 In quality, they are sweet and excellent, but they do not possess 

 any superiority over our common varieties. 



The seeds which we have obtained from the New York China- 

 men are mixed. In color, the peas run from nearly white to 

 dark brown. The brown seeds, however, have given us much 

 earlier pickings than the light ones. In one instance, the seeds 

 were sorted into three grades, light, medium light, and dark 

 brown, and all were planted in sandy soil on the 20th of April. 

 On the 5th of July, the dark-seeded plot gave a good picking, 

 while the light-.seeded, and even the medium plots, produced 

 much taller plants and very few of the pods had begun to fill 

 The dark and medium-seeded plots produced plants with colored 

 flowers, — the standard being rose-purple and the keel black- 

 purple and splashed. The light-colored seeds, on the other hand, 

 gave pure white flowers, larger leaves and broader pods. These 

 facts are interesting in connection with the evolution of the gar- 

 den pea and its relationship to the red -flowered field-pea. 



Tou-kok, or Chinese Bean. {Dolichos sesquipedalis). 



This is a pole bean with few-seeded pods of great length and 

 which are eaten after the manner of the pods of string beans. The 

 same species, but commonly a shorter-podded variety, is sold by 

 our seedsmen as French Yard-Long Bean. This bean is native 

 to South America, and is widely cultivated in warm countries. 

 It requires a long season, but we have little difficulty in securing 

 pods twenty inches' long. These pods are very slender, and .some- 

 what flattened and ridged, and the beans are often placed two 

 • inches apart. The beans are like tho.se of the French Yard- Long, 

 —small and oblong (>2 inch or less long), cinnamon-brown, with 

 a white black-bordered eye. Mr. Wah Hang tells me that the 

 Chinese name of this bean signifies "very long plain October," a 

 name which is applicable to length of pod and season of ripening. 

 Burr,* in speaking of this species, mentions a "variety known as 



* Garden vegetables, 287 (N. Y., 1S66). 



