520 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [June 21,1 883 . 
common Bramble ; they are varieties of an American species, 
Rubus occidentalis, popularly called the Western or Virginian 
Raspberry. The Kittatinny is a favourite variety in America, and 
is represented in the figure. They do very well in this country.] 
HISTORICAL JOTTINGS ON VEGETABLES.—No. 5. 
THE BEAN". 
We cannot say that the Bean, a plant which formerly had a 
renown for various reasons besides its value as an edible, has 
entirely lost its old fame. Some folklore yet survives connected 
with its name, for do not the employes in many houses of business 
or manufacture still hold their annual bean-feasts ? Beans may, 
or may not, form part of the repast; generally they do, since these 
excursions take place in the summer as a rule, but the Bean once 
gave them a sacredness they have no longer, for there is evidence 
that such jovial assemblies of fellow workmen—still held—lead 
us back to ancient festivals of Pagan times when Beans were 
offered in sacrifice made up into cakes. And it may also have 
been the case, as some think, that the Bean being regarded as a 
token of good luck, our superstitious forefathers considered that a 
feast named from this vegetable would be likely to result in a 
year of prosperity to master and man alike. There was, too, an 
old custom we have most of us read of, by which a Bean was 
placed in the Epiphany or Twelfthtide cake, and when this was 
cut up he was regarded as a fortunate person to whose share fell 
the slice in which the Bean was lodged. 
The Egyptians and the early Greeks did not agree amongst 
themselves as to the place the Bean should occupy. While some 
ate the vegetable others inclined to worship it, holding it sacred 
to the dead because of the black spot left on the point of attach¬ 
ment to the pod. Amongst the patriarchs of Syria, before Jewish 
history began, the Bean, like its ally the Lentil, had probably a 
favourable repute, and the Rabbis state that after the Israelites 
settled in Palestine they planted the Egyptian Bean there, which 
was, however, forbidden to the priests on particular occasions lest 
it should make them drowsy. Some of the Westerns held quite 
an opposite idea; they believed that Beans were to be shunned 
as foes to tranquillity of mind. In Italy the Romans grew 
Beans many centuries before the Christian era, and the Fabian 
family took its appellation from the plant. Pliny notes that it 
was usual to set them during the later autumn, so that they might 
winter underground; but in some parts of Greece the plant was 
disrespectfully treated, for rows of Beans, just as they came into 
flower, were ploughed in by the farmers to fertilise the soil. This 
old naturalist’s view that North Africa is the habitat of Vicia Faba, 
the seeming stock of our many garden varieties of Bean, is likely 
enough to be correct; and then, so several authors tell us, the 
Moors brought the vegetable to Spain. Through Spain it subse¬ 
quently came to England, perhaps ; but one cannot be positive 
as to how long the Broad Bean has been cultivated in our island. 
It preceded the Kidney Bean, and was evidently well known in 
the days of the Edwards and the Henries, possibly for centuries, 
cultivated more as a food for horses and cattle than for mankind. 
Gerard, writing in the sixteenth century, does not commend the 
vegetable particularly, though he remarks it was one that could 
be much improved by a rich soil. 
The mention in old books upon gardening of Spanish and Por¬ 
tugal varieties of the Bean certainly indicates the introduction of 
Beans from the Peninsula to England at a later period at least. 
An old variety of forward character, the Mazagan (also called 
Maragan) Bean, is stated to have come from Morocco. The Sand¬ 
wich Bean may be really French, for about the year 1530 refugees 
driven from France by religious persecution landed at Sandwich 
in Kent, formed gardens near that place, and gradually pushed 
their way towards the metropolis. Another arrival of Beans 
belongs to the reign of William III. The Windsor Bean is attri¬ 
buted to some one of his Dutch gardeners, and a field not far 
from that town used to be pointed out as the first producer of a 
crop of this sort. One of the old cries of London that is chro¬ 
nicled for us in a quaint collection of ballads is “ Ripe Beans 
but this may have referred to the Kidney Bean, and not the 
Broad Bean, as the former used to be vended when the seeds had 
grown to their full size in the pods, from which they were taken 
and fried, cut up, boiled or baked. Shredding the entire pod 
while it is not yet matured is a modern style of preparing the 
Kidney Bean and Scarlet Runner for the table. The Romans, 
indeed, did bring into their banquets the entire pod of this Bean, 
which was served up with vinegar and spice at the commence¬ 
ment in order to give appetite for the succeeding dishes ; it was 
evidently eaten raw. And a passing remark of Gerard’s intimates 
that during the reign of Elizabeth some persons ate the young 
pods boiled whole if the more general and economical practice 
was to allow the Beans to ripen in their pods before gathering. 
Haricot Beans, produced by a variety of the Kidney Bean, are 
still much liked on the Continent, and moderately patronised in 
Britain ; and it somewhat favours the theory that the Kidney 
Bean is a native of the sunny East that the flavour of its seeds 
is superior when they are grown in Asia or Africa, or in such 
regions of Europe as “sunny Italy”—by report, however, less 
sunny these recent years than it used to be. Alexander the 
Great, not much honoured as a benefactor to his race, is yet 
credited with the introduction of the Kidney Bean to Europe, 
he having had his attention drawn to the plant growing in a field 
across which he was marching ; but the tradition is doubtful, 
only we are assured this species of Bean was well known in 
ancient Greece and Italy. As some folks called it the “ Roman 
Bean,” when referring to it during Queen Elizabeth’s reign, an 
Italian variety must have reached our island then, yet this kind 
was not the pioneer. This seems to have been the white Dutch 
Kidney Bean, brought over from the Netherlands about 1509. 
Gerard calls it the “ Sperage Bean ” and the “ long Peason.” 
He evidently considers it more akin to the Pea than it is to the 
Broad Bean. The Battersea Kidney Bean is one of the few 
varieties often mentioned by gardeners of the eighteenth century, 
that moist district of Surrey formerly yielding very abundant 
crops of this vegetable. 
A year or two ago the march of improvement led to the 
removal of an old Lambeth residence, called Turret House, 
which had, in fact, escaped destruction longer than might have 
been anticipated. It was a house not uninteresting to all lovers 
of horticulture, for in a building more ancient that stood on 
the spot (a portion of which was incorporated with a newer 
structure) lived the Tradescants, father and son. Of the elder 
Tradescant it was said that “ he first introduced botany 
to this country ; ” the younger is credited with the introduction 
of exotic Ferns; both, indeed, imported and grew a variety of 
rare plants. Their garden ground was in the vicinity of the 
South Lambeth Road, and its fame attracted visitors from remote 
places ; but, alas for local popularity, the neighbours perverted 
the name to “ Tradeskin,” and the son fared badly in consequence 
of the troubles arising that ended in civil war, for he held an 
appointment under Charles I. It was in 1633, for the date seems 
to be unquestionable, that Tradescant brought from South America 
the Scarlet Runner without any idea of its economic value. The 
seeds were sown at Lambeth, and the plants allowed to cover 
trelliswork and walls, attracting notice by their scarlet bloom, 
which was gathered for nosegays, but the pods remained in neglect 
until Miller pointed out that they were edible. It was not until 
the reign of George II. that he drew the attention of the slow- 
moving English public, leading people to cultivate Scarlet Runners 
as an adjunct to the Bean crops. A white variety of this kind, 
mentioned by Abercrombie and others, became somewhat a 
favourite in London gardens. 
We should add that the Lentil (Ervum Lens), the powder of 
which under fancy names is so persistently bepuffed now-a-days, 
has never been grown to any extent in this island for the purpose 
of supplying food to mankind. Disregarding the opinion of the 
ancients, who set store by the Lentil because its pottage was 
nutritious and invigorating, English gardeners, after growing a 
few specimens at the time of its introduction, about 1548, left the 
plant to the farmers, by whom Lentils were cultivated during 
some years only as a cattle food. There once were fields of 
Lentils near London, and in some of the midland counties they 
grew large crops formerly.—J. R. S. C. 
YORK FLORAL FETE. 
June 13th, 14th, and 15th. 
A quarter of a century of flower shows is a long period to look 
back upon, and when a career of such a length has been as satisfactory 
as that of the York exhibitions it must afford much pride and grati¬ 
fication to those who assisted in the inauguration and in the subse¬ 
quent support of such an institution. The York Floral Ftlte has 
gradually become one of the most popular holidays in the north of 
England, and it still appears to be growing in general favour year by 
year. Thousands of visitors assemble from all the chief northern 
towms, and the fact that the railway companies should find it neces¬ 
sary to run some fourteen or fifteen excursions to the town on the 
second day of the Show is a good indication of the reputation it 
bears. This second day is the most popular one, and on Thursday last 
no less than 24,000 persons passed the gates, bringing the substantial 
sum of something like £1200 into the coffers of the Society. 
Horticulturally the Exhibition was very successful; perhaps in 
some classes there have been more numerous entries at some previous 
shows. The large specimens which were arranged upon the central 
