BEAN. 77 



Frenchman, would not by any persuasion 

 allow them to be eaten, on account of the 

 scarlet or blood colour of the blossom. The 

 family thought it more prudent to deprive 

 themselves of the promised delicacy than to 

 lose a valuable servant, whose superstition 

 prohibited him from serving a master who 

 could eat a vegetable producing (as he styled 

 it) a bloody flower. 



The dwarf kidney-bean being easily forced 

 in a hot-bed, and growing freely in the house, 

 now forms an important and profitable article 

 to the market-gardener, and enables the ve- 

 getable epicurean to indulge his appetite 

 with these beans nearly throughout the whole 

 year. It is one of the least hurtful luxuries 

 of the table ; and nothing adds more to the 

 elegant arrangement of a dinner than early 

 and rare vegetables. 



Kidney-beans are preserved in salt for 

 winter-use, and the young pods of the scarlet 

 runners make an excellent pickle. 



The white kind are used in the ripe and 

 dry state by foreign cooks in their haricots, 

 particularly in the neighbourhood of Rome, 

 where its cultivation forms an important ar- 

 ticle, the seed affording great part of their 



