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THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



New Zealand Runner Kidney Bean {Haricot de Prague 

 Ma7'bre).—A variety of moderate height, seldom exceeding about 

 4 ft., with thick green stems. Lower leaves large, slightly crimped, 

 the rest of medium size, narrow, and rather dark green ; flowers 

 pale lilac or rosy white ; pods broad, about 5 in. long, green at first, 

 afterwards becoming tinged with violet-red on a white ground, 

 and sometimes entirely red when ripe, each containing five or six 

 egg-shaped seeds, of a salmon-rose colour, spotted, dotted, and 

 striped with deep red, and having a brownish yellow circle around 

 the hilum. This kind, which was introduced about the middle of 

 the eighteenth century, is well known and extensively cultivated 

 under the name of " Coco Rose." It is more generally grown for 

 the dried seeds than for the pods. 



White Prague Kidney Bean. — Although this variety 

 resembles the White Coco Bean in the colour and shape of the 

 seed, it is distinguished from it by several marked characteristics. 

 It is later and longer-lasting ; the leaves are more abundant and 

 do not fall so soon ; they are large, not much crimped, and rather 

 a dark green, and those at the top of the stem are nearly the same 

 size as the lower ones ; the flowers are white, and the pods, which 

 are abundantly produced up to the tops of the stems, are longer 

 and narrower than those of the White Coco ; the seed also is 

 larger, something flatter, and not so regularly egg-shaped. A 

 very productive variety, with the single drawback of being some- 

 what late, and therefore less valuable in localities where the autumn 

 is cold and damp. 



White Coco, or Lazy Wife, Kidney Bean. — Stem green, 

 about 6\ ft. high ; leaves of medium size, stiff, rather long and 

 pointed, of a dark, rather dull, green, and slightly crimped ; flowers 

 white ; pods of medium length, rather broad, green, each containing 

 five or six white egg-shaped seeds, about \ in. long, nearly \ in. 

 broad, and over \ in. thick. This variety, although ranking 

 amongst the Edible-podded kinds (especially when the pods are 

 young), is more esteemed for its seeds, which are used in the dried 

 state. 



The Sophie Kidney Bean is considered to be only a sub- 

 variety of the W'hite Coco, from which it differs in having rather 

 larger pods (which are sometimes tinged with red, like those of the 

 Prague Kidney Beans) and somewhat larger leaves. 



Red Prague Kidney Bean. — This variety differs from the 

 preceding in the seeds being a uniform dark brown-red. 



There is also a sub-variety, known as the Two-coloured Prague 

 Kidney Bean, the seeds of which are half red and white. 



Among the Prague Kidney Beans should be included the 

 variety named Imperial Austrian White Coco, or Bossin. This is 

 a large, productive, and rather late kind, the seed of which is white 



