140 Agricultural Experiment Station_, Ithaca, N. Y. 



raised under very different circumstances, are certainly very similar 

 to each other. Later we have appearing the Mayflower, Garfield, 

 and many other similar sorts. And the appearance of any distinct 

 variety is sure to be followed by others, which although raised from 

 entirely different stock, are very similar to the first. The Favorite 

 tomato is followed by the Optimus, Beauty, and a score or more of 

 unnamed, varieties raised indifferent localities and from different 

 stock, but of comparatively little commercial value because so simi- 

 lar to the named sorts ; but if any one of them had appeared, a year 

 or two earlier, it would have been regarded as of the greatest value. 

 It is claimed that the hard shelled Champion, or Kolb's Gem water- 

 melon originated in Georgia in 1882, from a cross between Scaly 

 Bark and Cuban Queen. It is quite distinct from any observed 

 sort or cross appearing before that date, but I know of two un- 

 named sorts originating in 1882 — one in Illinois and the other in 

 Florida — from different parentage, but practically identical with 

 the Gem. The Minimum and American Wonder peas originated 

 about the same time — the one in England, the other in America — 

 and were a new type of evident value and importance, which, had 

 the}'' appeared among the thousands of new sorts raised before that 

 time, would have been extensively propagated and sold ; but these 

 two named sorts are only two of many peas of that type which 

 appeared at that time." 



There has been considerable speculation as to the cause of this 

 singular synchronism, or the nearly simultaneous appearing of simi- 

 lar types. It was lung a source of perplexity to me, and it is not 

 yet wholly explicable, although these dwarf Lima beans, which we 

 are about to study, offer some explanation of the question. These 

 beans afford a remarkable instance of synchronistic variation. 

 Henderson and Kumerle dwarf Limas were introduced in 1889, 

 Burpee in 1890,* Jackson Wonder in 1891, and Barteldes in 1892 

 or 1893. The variety which is now called the Henderson 

 was picked up twenty or more years ago by a negro, who found it 

 growing along a roadside in Virginia. It was afterwards grown in 

 various gardens, and about 1885 it fell into the hands of a seedman 

 in Ilichmond. Henderson purchased the stock of it in 1887, grew 

 it in 1888, and offered it to the general public in 1889. The intro- 



*The stateuieut in Annals of Horticultnre fur 1889 (p. 97) that Burpee Bush 

 Bean was introduced in 1889, is au error. The dwarf Lima which Burpee offered 

 that year was tbe Henderson. 



