VEGETABLE CULTIVATION DURING QUEEN VICTORIA'S REIGN. 373 



the broad massive pods of the Scarlet Runner with the habit of 

 the Dwarf Bean, are in the hands of one or two experts, little if 

 any advance upon such favourites as Canadian Wonder and Ne 

 Plus Ultra has been made. 



Climbing French Beans. 



One of the most notable improvements made in vegetables 

 during Her Majesty's reign has been the creation of an entirely 

 new race of French or Kidney Beans with a climbing habit of 

 growth. There are several distinct types before the public, 

 differing in the size and colour of the seed, shape and size of pod, 

 and in earliness also. Amongst these are our Tender and True 

 and Yeitch's Climbing, both attaining a height of four to seven 

 feet according to cultivation. A more recent introduction is our 

 Excelsior — a Bean combining the delicacy and tenderness of 

 Canadian Wonder with the vigorous growth of the Scarlet 

 Runner. (Fig. 95.) 



Runner Beans 



were represented sixty years ago by the old Scarlet, the Painted 

 Lady, and the Large White ; and although one or two varieties 

 of recent introduction are the result of artificial crossing, the 

 majority of the improved types have been obtained by selection. 

 But even in some of these cases it is quite reasonable to suggest 

 that they are natural crosses resulting from inoculation. 

 Scarlet Runners producing pods 13^ inches in length would 

 have caused almost as much interest amongst the gardening 

 fraternity of 1837 as did the advent of the first motor cab in the 

 streets of London. That greater length will yet be attained I 

 have no doubt, and with it an improvement in quality on some 

 of the existing large podded varieties. The homely Scarlet 

 Runner which Tradescant cultivated in his garden at Lambeth 

 in the seventeenth century for the sake of its flowers can now 

 in its improved form boast of an almost unlimited number of 

 attractive names, each chosen to indicate a type of greater size 

 or length than any previously quoted. 



Asparagus, &c. 



Until quite recently English gardeners and their employers 

 appeared to be quite satisfied with the Asparagus grown when 



