The Dwaef Lima Beans. 141 



ductiou of Henderson's bean attracted tlie attention of Asa Palmer, 

 of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, who had also been growing a dwarf 

 Lima. He called upon Burpee, the well-known seedsman of Phil- 

 adelphia, described his v^ariety, and left four beans for trial. These 

 were planted in the test grounds and were found to be valuable. 

 Mr. Palmer's entire stock was then purchased — comprising over an 

 acre, which had been carefully inspected during the season — and 

 Burpee Bush Lima was presented to the public in the spring of 

 1890. ISTow, Mr. Palmer's dwarf Lima originated in 1883, whilst 

 Henderson's originated at least ten years earlier ; and Mr. Palmer 

 made his own variety public because he was attracted by Hender- 

 son's advertisement. In other words, the simultaneousness of these 

 two varieties was only an apparent one. This is certainly true of 

 many apparently simultaneous varieties. They have originated at 

 widely different times and in different ways, and have been culti- 

 vated year after year, perhaps, in obscure places. When someone 

 introduces a strange type, attention is directed to all similar varieties, 

 and they are called into notice, in the same way that an unusual 

 event in some locality is often followed by the recital of other 

 similar events. 



Yet it is true that, speaking broadly, there is a general tendency 

 in any species, and amongst closely related species, to vary in 

 similar directions. The angular or cornered tomatoes of a gen- 

 eration ago are rapidly passing into the large round apple-shaped 

 tomatoes, particularly in North America, where this evolution has 

 progressed farther than elsewhere in the world. All varieties of 

 potatoes are ^progressing towards seedlessness. There are reasons 

 for these general onward movements of plants, which can not be ex- 

 plained here. All that need be said in explanation of this tendency 

 is the fact that the beans tend to vary into bush or non-twining 

 forms. We shall discover presently that these dwarf Lima beans 

 are offshoots of two or three distinct species. We know that the 

 original forms of these species were climbing plants. Now, this 

 known tendency to the production of dwarf forms in these three 

 species or types of so-called Lima beans, affords an excellent illus- 

 tration of how the common Held and garden beans must have 

 originated. The common bean, both in its pole and bush form, is 

 wholly unknown in a wild state. Even its native country is unde- 

 termined, although there is the strongest circumstantial evidence 

 that the species is Amercian. Linngeus, over a hundred years ago. 



