ORIGINATING NEW VARIETIES. 109 
Webber, dwelling on the improvement in earliness 
that has been accomplished with plants by selection, 
says: ‘‘The decided shortening of the period required 
for Sea Island cotton to mature, has fitted it for culti- 
vation in certain portions of the United States, in which 
it is now an important crop.”’ 
The several varieties of bush lima beans now in gen- 
eral cultivation were discovered by accident, their origin 
being due to sport. Burpee’s bush lima was found as 
a single plant by Asa Palmer, of Kennett Square, Pa., 
growing in a field of large white pole limas. It was 
about ten inches high, and bore three pods, each con- 
taining one seed. Saving these seeds, he planted them 
the following year. Two of the seedlings were dwarf 
like their parent, the other had a tendency to climb. 
By destroying all plants in succeeding crops for several 
years which manifested the climbing habit, he finally 
obtained a fixed type of bush lima. It was then 
brought to the attention of Burpee, the seedsman, who, 
recognizing its great merit, was the first to introduce it 
to the public. 
Henderson’s bush lima was found by a colored man 
not long after the close of the Civil War growing along 
a roadside in Virginia. Its seed was saved, and seed 
also saved from subsequent plants so that in time its 
cultivation spread and it became generally planted in 
Virginia private gardens. Henderson, the seedsman, 
had his attention called to it, and in 1889 it was intro- 
duced by him to the country at large. 
Dreer’s or Thorburn’s bush lima was originally a 
single plant, discovered by J. W. Kumerle, of Newark, 
New Jersey, growing in his garden in a patch of Chal- 
lenger pole lima. He saved the seed and cultivated 
the variety until it became fixed. 
