DESCRIPTIONS OF VARIETIES 



83 



preference over Sulphur, but as this is practically the 

 only name now listed, it is used to introduce a very old 

 variety. It was probably first known in America as 

 China Yellow or Yellow China, but these names occur 

 only as synonyms in publications of the past 60 years. 

 Golden Cranberry, with several synonyms, followed 

 China Yellow; then Robin's Egg and Golden Drop were 

 used, succeeded by Eureka, California Cream or Pea, 

 Sulphur, and Self-seasoning. Careful study of available 

 descriptions shows little, if any, difference between the 

 plants, pods, or seeds of the strains thus differently 

 named. Of the names given, Eureka seems to have a 

 distinct history, this being used by the Ford Seed Com- 

 pany in 1893 to reintroduce an old variety; also, Self- 

 seasoning was used in the same way by Gill in 1918. 



All of these varieties or strains must be considered 

 undesirable as snap beans, and even the green-shell beans 

 are rather too small for wide use. They are in season 

 with Navy Pea as dry shell beans and are considered by 

 some excellent for soup or baking because of a rather 

 distinct flavor. The variety is not especially productive. 



The Yellow Canada of Burr carries as a synonym 

 Round American Kidney which he also gives as a 

 synonym of Golden Cranberry, but the dry beans differ 

 in having a red rather than greenish line about the hilum, 

 as have the other varieties described. 



Plant 1 to ljj feet tall, with heavy, erect stem, well branched 

 and quite spreading, but very few or no runners; foliage abundant, 

 medium to dark green, glossy, considerably crumpled; leaflets large, 

 broad, shortly taper-pointed. Flowers phlox pink. Pods 4 to 4} 2 

 inches long, 3^ to } 2 inch wide, plump, straight or slightly curved, 

 slightly constricted, ends double rounded, with } 2 inch rather heavy, 

 rigid, slightly curved tip from near center. Seeds usually 5, about 

 75 to 80 to the ounce, small to medium; short ovate with protuberant 

 eye, very plump, ends short -rounded, cream or light sulfur yellow 

 in color, slightly veiny, with a narrow, faint greenish eye-ring which 

 may darken to brown or chocolate. 



Thousand-fold Dwarf White. This was a very 

 old pea of German origin; late and of no particular value 

 and now unknown by name. It was intermediate 

 between Dwarf Princess and Dwarf Rice. 



Plants 1 to 1/6 feet tall, very much branched, with many 

 runners of equal or greater length; pods short, 3 to 3}4 inches long, 

 narrow, straight, with strong, short tip; seeds 4 or 5, oval, slightly 

 flattened or lenticular, slightly larger than those of Dwarf Rice, 

 white in color. 



Turtle Soup. Refs. 13, 43, 47, 48, 56, 91, 97, 98. 

 Syns. Black Turtle Soup, Black Spanish, Brazilian 

 Running Bean, Tampico, Venezuelan. Turtle Soup is a 

 very old variety grown as a field bean. It apparently 

 originated in northeastern South America or possibly in 

 Chile and was widely found, as shown by its many 

 Spanish, Portuguese, Mexican, and Indian synonyms. 

 It was taken to Europe presumably by Spaniards and 

 was listed by Zuciagui, an Italian botanist, in 1806. 

 Irish says it was known in Germany before 1860, but we 

 find no record of its growth in France. In the United 

 States, Thorburn offered it as early as 1832, but it was 

 known in the South long before that time. The only 

 real use for the variety is for making soups, to which the 

 dry black beans give a distinct flavor and a greenish 

 color somewhat similar to that of the green turtle soup 



so popular along southern sea coasts. Turtle Soup is 

 quite productive, the young pods are crisp and tender, 

 but they soon become very tough and stringy and are 

 poor in color, being marked with purple; while the green- 

 shell beans are too small to be desirable for cooking. 

 It is very late in season, occasionally failing to mature 

 in the North, and is quite different in growth habit from 

 any other sort. 



Plant considered dwarf, 15 to 18 inches high, spreading and 

 very thick, throwing out many runners that may reach 2 to 4 feet 

 if poles are supplied; extremely vigorous, very hardy and productive; 

 stems erect; branches moderate in number, quite purple. Foliage 

 only medium abundant, light green, rather small, 3 to 3J2 inches 

 long, 2 to 2 1 2 inches broad, surface pubescent, slightly wrinkled, a 

 little rough, thin; leaflets broadly oval or heart shaped, slightly 

 taper pointed with blunt tips. Flowers rose purple. 



Pods borne well below the foliage also to some extent in the 

 lower leaf axils of runners; dark green in color. Quality poor; 

 tough, stringy, fibrous and coarse in texture. Size medium long, 

 broad and slender (4— 5}4 x &— } x ' t~ :< s inches), containing 7-8 

 seeds. Shape flat; oval thru cross-section, straight to slightly 

 curved, straight-backed, moderately constricted, fairly crowded, 

 smooth, filled to the tip and the edge and abruptly rounded at the 

 end. Spur moderately long, slender and recurved. Suture, 

 placental is flattened and carpellary, moderately acute. 



Seeds small (.1.15 x .65 x .45 cm.) containing 150-60 per oz. 

 Shape sub-reniform, quite flattened; ends abruptly rounded or 

 decidedly flattened or squared, probably due to the close arrange- 

 ment in the pod. Hilum small and depressed or indented. Color 

 jet black over the entire surface. Apparently there are two strains 

 that differ in this respect; one is a shining jet black after the 

 sparse bloom has been removed and the other is a very dull, 

 unattractive black. 



Vineless Marrow. This was one of many strains 

 or types grown in western New York before 1900, but 

 was first recommended and cataloged by Ferry in 1896. 

 It became quite generally distributed and was also known 

 and widely grown on the Pacific Coast. Except in small 

 areas in this State, it was not extensively grown and 

 gradually lost popularity until only two seedsmen listed 

 it in 1921. 



Plants large, erect, with comparatively few branches; runner- 

 less; foliage coarse, medium green. Flowers white. Pods of medium 

 length, straight or slightly curved, with heavy straight tips nearly 

 central on rounded ends, broad and heavy, constricted, green, not 

 edible. Seeds of Nova Scotia Marrow type, not quite as large, 

 distinctly ovate, among best of marrows for baking and large enough 

 for fairly satisfactory use as green-shells. 



White Flageolet. Refs. 13, 16, 26, 47, 48, 53, 63, 

 93, 94, 97, 98. Syns. First of All, French Flageolet, 

 Stanton, White Canterbury, White Swiss. White 

 Flageolet or White Canterbury is a very old variety, 

 probably being the " Larger White dwarf " of Mawe- 

 Abercrombie, and the ancestor of the many varieties 

 and strains of white, kidney-shaped beans now known 

 and of more numerous ones that have passed from culti- 

 vation. Like all varieties that have been in cultivation 

 over a long period, many improved strains of White 

 Flageolet have been offered, several of which were con- 

 sidered to have separate characters and therefore were 

 introduced under an entirely different name. White 

 Flageolet is the same as Triumph of the Frames in habit 

 of growth and character of foliage ; the pods are slightly 

 smaller, more curved, darker in color, and more depressed 

 between beans. 



