AMERICAN GARDEN-BEAN. 447 



beginning of summer weather, pods were gathered for the 

 table in fifty days, and the beans ripened in eleven weeks. 



The seeds, when ripe, are of a pale pink color, marbled 

 or variegated with rose-red, becoming duller and browner by 

 age, oblong, nearly straight, sometimes distorted and irregu- 

 lar as if pressed out of their natural shape, often more or 

 less shortened at the ends, five eighths of an inch long, three 

 eighths of an inch wide, and about the same in thickness. 

 A quart will contain eighteen or nineteen hundred seeds, 

 which will be sufficient for a hundred and seventy-five hills, 

 or for a drill, or row, of two hundred or two hundred 

 and twenty-five feet. 



The Early Valentine has little merit as a shelled-bean, 

 green or ripe ; but of nearly seventy of the most popular 

 of the native, as well as foreign sorts, experimentally grown, 

 no one excelled it in the tender and succulent character of 

 the pods in the green state. Though these are of moderate 

 size, they are remarkable for their thick, fleshy sides, and 

 for the length of time required for the development of the 

 seeds within. Few, if any, of the dwarfs harden their pods 

 so slowly, or continue longer in condition for use, and few 

 are more productive. 



It has long been grown in England and other parts of 

 Europe, and is common to gardens in almost every section 

 of the United States. 



A variety, imported from France, about twenty years 

 since, and known as the " Excelsior," strongly resembles, 

 if it is not identical with, the Early Valentine. The plants 

 are similar in habit ; the pods have the same form, and 

 solid, fleshy character ; and the seeds, in their ripe state, are 

 of the same size and color. 



TT . , , . . , n i Golden Cran- 



Height about sixteen inches ; flowers purple ; berry. 



the pods are five inches and a half long, five ROUND AMEB/CAX 



KlDXKY. 



