ENGLISH BEAN. 493 



Cultivation. " When the plants have attained a height 

 of five or six inches, they are earthed up slightly for support, 

 and, when more advanced, they are sometimes staked along 

 the rows, and cords extended from stake to stake to keep the 

 plants erect. When the young pods appear, the tops of the 

 plants should be pinched off, to throw that nourishment, 

 which would be expended in uselessly increasing the height 

 of the plant, into its general system, and consequently in- 

 crease the bulk of crop, as well as hasten its maturity. This 

 often recommended operation, though disregarded by many, 

 is of very signal importance." Mclnt. 



Taking the Crop. The pods should be gathered for use 

 when the seeds are comparatively young, or when they are 

 of the size of a marrowfat pea. As a general rule, all vege- 

 tables are most tender and delicate when young ; and to few 

 esculents does this truth apply with greater force than to the 

 class of plants to which the English Bean belongs. 



Use. The seeds are used in their green state, cooked 

 and served in the same manner as shelled kidney-beans. 

 The young pods are sometimes, though rarely, used as 

 string-beans. 



Varieties. 



Plant from four to five feet high, dividing Dutch Long 

 into two or three branches ; flowers white ; the 

 pods are horizontal, or slightly pendulous, six or seven inches 

 long, about an inch in width, three fourths of an inch thick, 

 and contain five or six large white or yellowish-white seeds. 



The variety is not early, but prolific, and of good quality. 



A remarkably dwarfish, early variety, much Dwarf Fan, 



or Cluster, 

 employed m forcing. The stem is about a foot EARLY DWAB*. 



BOQ-BKAN. 



high, and separates near the ground into two 

 or three branches ; the flowers are white ; the pods, which 

 42 



