12 Dwarf Waxen-Podded^ White-Seeded Bean^ 



We have in the gladiohis various shades of red, scarlet, and crimson, 

 with a distinct hne of white running through the middle of each petal. 

 What a charming addition to our stock would be a white flower, with a 

 rose or scarlet line in the middle of each division, or a white flower 

 with a broad throat of rose or violet ! In the blooms of some Cat- 

 tleyas there is an unspeakably beautiful color, fresh and charming to 

 the utmost — a sort of delicate lilac, with the faintest blush of pink. 

 We have an approach to this color in the gladiolus Noemi; we ma}- 

 some day reach the very tint itself. 



These few hints will tend to show, it seems to me, that the gladiolus 

 is far from having " said its last word," as the French express it. Years 

 ago it was thought no improvement could be made in the fuchsia and 

 the pelargonium ; and yet both these flowers are immensely in advance 

 of what they were in old times. 



DWARF WAXEN-PODDED, WHITE-SEEDED BEAN. 



By Fearing Burr, Hingham, Mass. 



In the spi-ing of 1869, Ernst Benary, a seedsman at Erfurt, Prussia, 

 foi-warded to some of our principal seed warehouses a small package 

 of the seeds of this new bean, which, after a trial of two seasons, proves 

 to be a most valual^le acquisition. It is decidedly a dwarf. Though 

 of stocky habit, it seldom attains a height of more than ten or twelve 

 inches. Indeed, there are few, if any, of our garden beans of lower 

 growth or with smaller foliage. The pods are short and broad, of a 

 delicate, waxen-white color from first to last, and contain from four to 

 six medium-sized, roundish, pure ivhite seeds. 



Though described as being early, it can scarcely be regarded as a 

 " first early." Planted the middle of May, the pods were sufficiently 

 advanced for plucking during the second week of July, and the crop 

 was hai-vested the middle of August. 



The size of the plant considered, it is not surpassed by any sort now 

 in cultivation in point of productiveness. In a trial growth the branch- 

 es v^^ere so laden with their burden of handsome, spotless pods, that they 

 often brought the plants to the ground. Aside from the beauty of color, 

 these pods have the same crisp, fleshy texture and delicate, marrowy 

 flavor for which those of the Indian Chief and other waxen-pod sorts 

 are so miich esteemed, while for shelling green, or even for use when 



