294 LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 



downy ; the seeds are rounded, or reniftarm, flattened, and 

 vary to a considerable extent in size and color in the dif- 

 ferent varieties, 7 they 

 will vegetate until more 

 than five years old. 



Soil and Planting. 

 As before remarked, the 

 English Bean requires a 

 moist, strong soil, and 

 a cool situation ; the 

 principal obstacles in the 

 way of its successful cul- 

 tivation in this coun- 

 try being the heat and 

 drought of the summer. 

 The seeds should be 

 planted Dearly, in drills 

 two feet asunder for the 

 smaller - growing varie- 

 ties, and three feet for 

 the larger sorts, drop- 

 ping them six inches 

 from each other, and 

 covering two inches 

 deep. A quart of seed 

 will plant a hundred 

 and fifty feet of row or 



English Bean. fcfi^ 



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- 



