620 LEGUMINACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



tendency to flatulency like the pea and bean, and producing abundant 

 crops in dry hot weather, when the pea, unless abundantly watered, 

 is withered up. The green pods, also, make an excellent pickle ; and 

 the ripe seeds are much used in cookery, especially in what are called 

 haricots, soups, and stews. The scarlet runner, one of the twining 

 varieties, is at once a highly ornamental plant, and eminently prolific in 

 pods, from July till the plant is destroyed by frost ; and as it is of the 

 easiest culture, it forms one of the most valuable plants in the cata- 

 logue for the garden of the cottager. There is no vegetable from 

 which such a large weight of excellent food can be gathered for so 

 many months in succession as these runner beans. 



Varieties. Those of the dwarf species are very numerous ; but the 

 kinds considered best worth cultivating are the Sion House, Newington 

 Wonder, Fulmer's Forcing, and Early Negro, for forcing, or the earliest 

 crops ; and the pale dun, long-podded Negro, dark dun, Canterbury 

 early white, and light dun, for general crops. The best variety of the 

 twining species (Haricot a rames, Fr.), for cultivating for its pods to 

 be used green is the scarlet runner ; though there is a large white 

 runner, the white Dutch, and also a variegated-blossomed runner, 

 the Painted Lady, which produce equally good pods, but the blos- 

 soms are not so ornamental. The pods of the kidney-bean are smooth, 

 and those of the scarlet runners are rough outside. The roots of the 

 scarlet runner, if taken up on the approach of frost and preserved 

 through the winter, will grow again next spring, like the roots of the 

 marvel of Peru, or the dahlia ; or like them they may be protected 

 where they stand ; but as nothing would be gained by this practice, 

 it is never adopted. Half a pint of seed will sow a row eighty feet 

 in length, the beans being placed from two inches and a half to three 

 inches apart in the row ; and this length of row will be required for 

 gathering a single dish at a time. The seed comes up in a week or 

 more, according to the temperature of the soil. 



Culture of the Dwarf Sorts. The first sowing in the open garden 

 may be made in the beginning of April, if the situation is warm, and 

 the soil dry. The second about the middle of the month, and sub- 

 sequently sowings may be made every three or four weeks till the first 

 week in August. The rows may be two feet asunder, and the beans 

 deposited in drills from two inches to three inches apart, and covered to 

 the depth of one inch, or one inch and a half. The routine culture con- 

 sists in watering abundantly in very dry weather, and using lime-water 

 if, which is often the case, the plants are attacked by snails or slugs. 



Culture of the Twining Sorts. These being rather more tender than 

 the dwarfs, are not sown till towards the end of April or the begin- 

 ning of May ; a second sowing may be made about the middle of May ; 

 and a third and last in the first week in June. To forward the gather- 

 ing season, the first crop is often sown under glass in March, and 

 planted out in May, when all danger of frost is over. In cottage gar- 

 dens, one sowing in the beginning of May will produce plants which, 

 if the soil is in good condition, water judiciously applied, and the 

 green pods gathered before the seeds formed in them begin to swell, 



