1885.] Kitchen Garden Esculents of American Origin. 449 
to the height of from five to six feet; and they keep the ground 
very free from weeds.” In 1614 Capt. John Smith mentions 
“beans” among the New England Indians,’ and when the Pil- 
grims first landed, Nov. 19, 1620, Miles Standish unearthed from 
a pit not only corn but “a bag of beans.” Wood also mentions 
“Indian beans” as among the foods of the Massachusetts Indians, 
1629-33.° Lescarbot* says that the Indians of Maine, 1608, like 
those of Virginia and Florida, plant their corn in hills, “and be- 
tween the kernels of corn they plant beans marked with various 
colors, which are very delicate: these, because they are not so 
high as the corn, grow very well among it.” The most com- 
plete enumeration of varieties are, however, given in Josselyn, 
before 1670: “French beans: or rather, American beans. The 
herbalists call them kidney-beans from their shape and effects: 
for they strengthen the kidneys. They are variegated much,— 
some being bigger, a great deal, than others ; some white, black, 
red, yellow, blue, spotted: besides your Bonivis and Calavances, 
and the kidney-bean that is proper to Roanoke. But these are 
‘brought into the country ; the others are natural to the climate.”® 
In 1535 Cartier, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, found 
“beans of every color, yet differing from ours.” 
In 1609 Hudson, exploring the river which now bears his name, 
found within the limits of what is now Rensselzr county, N. Y., 
“beans of the last year’s growth.” In 1653 Van der Donck, in 
his Description of the Netherlands, says: “ Before the arrival of - 
the Netherlanders [1614] the Indians raised beans of various 
kinds and colors, but generally too coarse to be eaten green, or 
to be pickled, except the blue sort, which are abundant.’* In 
1633, De Vries “proceeded in the yacht up the [Delaware] river, 
to procure beans from the Indians.”? 
“Beans” were seen by Newport, in 1607, in ascending the 
James river? but Heriot, in 1586, describes the okindgier of Vir- 
1Champlain’s Voy. Prince. Soc. ed., 64. 
2 The Disc. of New Eng, Peter Force Coll. of Tracts, II, 16. 
"N. E Pios., pt. 2, ch. 6. 
* Hist. Nouv. France, 1612, 835. 
5 Quoted by Gray and Trumbull, 4m. Jour. of St., Aug. 1883, p. 132. 
8 Josselyn’s Voyages, 73, 74. 
1N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll. 2d ser., 1, 300, 325. 
8Gray and Trumbull, l. c., 134. 
9 Hazard’s Annals of Pa., 31. 
1 Pickering, Ch. Hist. of Pl. 575. 
VOL. XIX,—NO, V. 29 
