THE KIDNEY-BEAN. 619 



ing an early crop of peas. The bean transplants remarkably well, 

 and many gardeners adopt this mode with their earliest crops. 



In cottage gardens, not only in Britain but in the North of Europe 

 generally, it is customary to plant beans in the same rows with 

 cabbages, and also with potatoes ; a beau being planted alternately 

 with every potato set or cabbage plant. The rows of potatoes or 

 cabbages are two feet and a half or three feet apart, according as they 

 may be of small or large sorts ; the distances in the rows are eighteen 

 inches, and between each two plants a bean (the Longpod is the best 

 variety for this purpose) is deposited. If the beans are transplanted, 

 they get the start of the potatoes or cabbages, and as they come in 

 early they will be gathered before they can do any injury to the 

 cabbage or potato crops. 



All the routine culture required for a crop of beans is, destroying 

 weeds, slightly earthing up the stems, stirring the soil, watering in 

 very dry weather, and stopping the plants when the first opened blos- 

 soms are beginning to set. Stopping in the case of an early crop may 

 take place as with the pea, at the joint above the first blossom as soon 

 as it appears ; but this is only when a very early crop is more desi- 

 rable than an abundant one. A very late crop of beans may be 

 obtained by cutting over a summer crop, a few inches above the 

 ground, as soon as the plants have come into flower. New stems will 

 spring from the stools in abundance, and continue bearing till they 

 are destroyed by frost. Beans for the table should be gathered 

 before they arrive at maturity, which is known by their being black- 

 eyed that is, black at the hilum, or point of attachment to the pod. 

 When this has taken place, beans are tough and strong-tasted, and 

 much inferior for eating as a dish ; though they are excellent in the 

 soups of the cottager. For the higher classes, the beans are used 

 when they are about one-third grown. The bean is sometimes 

 attacked by the black aphis, which may be kept under by abundant 

 syringing with lime or soot- water. Seed of any variety may be saved 

 by allowing a sufficient number of plants to bring their pods to 

 maturity ; it will keep a year, and sometimes two years. 



The bean is rarely or never forced, not being held in sufficient esti- 

 mation for this purpose by the wealthy classes of society. 



The Kidney-bean. 



The Kidney-bean (Phaseolus, L.) includes two species the common 

 dwarf kidney-bean, syn. French bean (P. vulgaris, L.), an annual, 

 growing twelve or eighteen inches high, a native of India ; and the 

 runner, syn. climbing kidney-bean (P. multiflorus, W.), a twining 

 annual, attaining the height of ten or twelve feet, a native of South 

 America. Though both sorts are too tender to endure our springs 

 and autumn in the open air, yet so rapid is their growth during our 

 summers, that they produce abundant crops of green pods in the open 

 garden, from June to October, and, by forcing, these can be obtained 

 ail the year. The unripe pods both of the dwarf and twining kidney- 

 beans, form the most delicate legume in cultivation; having no 



