102 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



No. 89. Soissons Vert (a rames) (sent by Messrs. Vilmorin). 

 No. 74. Southern Creaseback (sent by Messrs. Thorburn). 

 No. 69. The Admiral Wonder (sent by Messrs. Barr). 

 No. 88. Blanc Geant sans parchemin (sent by Messrs. Vilmorin). 



With the exception of Tender and True and Veitch's Climbing 

 French, which as originally grown are said to have been identical and 

 which are both forms of the Climbing Canadian Wonder first grown 

 at Chiswick in 1885, no climbing French bean has previously secured 

 an award (unless the F.C.C. given in 1873 to the bean ' Mont d'Or ' 

 was given to the climbing form of that variety ; this our records do not 

 make clear). This state of affairs reflects the neglect of climbing 

 French Beans in our gardens, where almost the only climbing beans 

 that have acquired a place, and that almost a universal one, are the 

 Scarlet Runners. This is the more curious, for in French and American 

 gardens the Scarlet Runner is the exception rather than the rule. The 

 climbing French Bean shares with the Scarlet Runner the need for 

 support (though the support need not usually be so tall), and it is 

 far less ornamental than the Scarlet Runner, but it is scarcely on this 

 account that its cultivation has been so greatly neglected. It is no 

 unusual thing to find that while the French Beans are appreciated 

 as young ' snap ' pods in the early part of the season for outdoor 

 beans, as soon as the Scarlet Runner is ready for picking the French 

 Bean is passed over, whether dwarf or tall, in spite of its more 

 delicate flavour. 



The only use of French Beans commonly recognized in English 

 household cookery is as ' haricots verts,' or ' snap pods,' and this 

 only in those forms which quickly become tough and have a decided 

 string which must be removed before the young pods are cut up for 

 cooking. The many forms of beans which are practically string- 

 less until very old, the whole pod of which may be cooked entire, are 

 practically unknown, while the use of the nearly full-grown beans 

 (' flageolets ') shelled out like peas before they are ripe, and so much 

 appreciated in France, is known to but few of even the best-informed 

 vegetable growers. This use is not even mentioned in those vade- 

 mecums of the gardener, Nicholson's ' Dictionary of Gardening,' or 

 Thomson's ' Gardeners' Assistant,' nor contemplated by the author of 

 that excellent manual of vegetable growing ' The Profitable Culture 

 of Vegetables,' who truly says, ' When French Beans can be got early 

 they are a profitable crop to grow, but the demand for them falls 

 away as soon as runners become plentiful. 



Until the Dutch Brown Beans were distributed by the Society, 

 with instructions towards securing the crop of dry beans for winter 

 use, scarcely anyone realized the possibility of increasing the food 

 production of their gardens in this direction, but now that the 

 value of these beans is recognized and the ease with which they can 

 be secured known, we may hope that we shall be self-supporting so 

 far as dry beans of the haricot type for winter use are concerned, 



