The Dwakf Lima Beans. 143 



more in determining when a given form is valuable and in the 

 subsequent breeding or selection of it, than in any power which he 

 possesses over the original genesis of novel types. Certainly, with 

 the dwarf Lima beans, the horticulturist owes less thanks to science 

 than to good luck and cut-worms. 



Before proceeding to an account of the actual merits of these 

 dwarf Lima beans, I must still further bewilder my reader with a 

 discussion of the botany of them. So far as we can determine from 

 any literature yet written, these beans are simply dwarf forms of 

 various Limas, But this is not sufficiently explicit. There are 

 three well-marked types or groups of Limas in cultivation in this 

 country, two of which have been considered by many botanists to 

 represent distinct species. Linnseus, nearly a hundred and fifty 

 years ago, described two species of beans, which modern botanists 

 consider to be the parents of the so-called Lima beans of gardens. 

 Now, the dwarf Lima beans have sprung from each of the three 

 different types of pole Limas, and one of them is a semi-perennial 

 plant and is an oifshoot of the same species which gives us the 

 Scarlet Runner, Painted Lady and White Dutch Runner. The 

 botanical types from which these so-called dwarf Limas have sprung 

 may be arranged as follows : 



I. Phaseolus lunatus, Linn, (Sp. PI. 724, 1753). Carolina, 

 Sieva, Sewee, Saba, Sivy, Civet, Sky, West Indian and Butter 

 Beans. Bushel Bean of early American writers. Phaseolus 

 hijpimctatus, Jacquin, Hort. Yind. i. p. 44. t. 100 (1770) is com- 

 monly referred to Linnaeus' P. lunatus^ and it is probably an 

 outlying form of it, but it is not in cultivation in this country, so 

 far as I know. It differs from our Sievas by its long leaves, 

 different pod, and conspicuous hairiness. 



Dwarfs. — Jackson (Jackson Wonder) ; Henderson ; Northrup, 

 Braslan and Goodwin Dwarf Lima ; Dwarf Carolina, 



I A. Phaseolus lunatus var. maGrocarpus^ Bentham (Flora Brazil. 

 XV. i. 181, 1862). P.inamcBnus, Linn. Sp. PL 724; Jacq. Hort. 

 Yind. i. p. 27, t. 66. Other specific names which seem to belong 

 here are P. Limensis, P. saccharatus^ P. /(mundus, P. latisi- 

 liquus, Macfajden, Fl. Jamaica (1837; P. puheruhis, HBK. 

 Nov. Gen. vi. 451 ; P. Xtcarezii, Zucc. in D C. Prodr. ii. 393. 



