242 | [ ASSEMBLY 
| VARIATION AND HYBRIDIZATION. ; 
In harvesting the bean crop in 1882 we were surprised in several 
instances to find among the beans of the true type of the variety 
others that were of an entirely different type. Usually the variation 
was confined to the coloring of the seed often, however, it extended 
to the shape and size as well. As the seed from which the crop had 
been grown had in all cases been obtained from seedsmen, these varia- 
' tions were ascribed at the time to the impurity of the seed, especially 
as such impurity was in many cases manifest. The results of the 
present season’s investigations now lead us to believe that. the varia- 
tions were in many cases the result of cross-fertilization. 
All the seeds in the crop of 1882 that were in any way different 
from the regular type of the variety were carefully sorted out and 
kept separately, and were planted as separate varieties the present 
season. ‘The seed of the well established varieties that were planted 
this year was for the most part station grown, and had been. carefully 
, selected to what was believed to be the true type of the variety. In 
many cases this seed has given in the crop results that were more un- 
looked for than the variations of the preceding year. 
Below are enumerated all the variations that have come under our 
notice. 
Best of All. — This i is a.bush bean, oblong, slightly. kidney form, 
usually somewhat flattened sidewise, light brown mottled and streaked 
with dull red, and with a yellow ring about the eye. In the crop of 
1882 there appeared several beans of the same general shape, but col- - 
ored differently, in that the dull red color was very much increased, so — 
much so as to almost entirely cover the bean, leaving only small flecks 
here and there of the light brown color. These were sorted out and 
planted separately, but in the crop of 1883 gave almost entirely beans 
of the original color, while in the crop from the pure type of seed 
there were about the same number of beens that were off type as 
there had been the previous season. Numerous cases were also noticed 
where one-half of the bean would be properly colored and the other 
half almost entirely dull red. 
Boston Dwarf Wax.— A low bush variety with beans. of medium 
size, varying in color from dark dun to dark brown, with a black ring 
around the eye, oblong, slightly kidney form, slightly flattened side- 
wise, rarely slightly compressed on the ends. From this variety a 
larger form mottled in two shades of dark brown was selected, and 
when planted separately in 1883 produced a crop that was true to seed 
with the exception that in about one-half the crop the mottled 
character of the seed was largely lost. 
Canadian Wonder. — A tall bush variety, beans oblong, quite 
strongly kidney form, flattened sidewise, usually strongly compressed 
on the ends, very dark red. In 1882 the crop was entirely uniform, 
but in 1883 one plant produced beans slightly smaller in size, and of 
a dark purplish, almost black, color, obscurely marked with small 
zreenish gray flecks which are inclined to form broken rings concentric 
wath the eye. In 1882 it was planted in close proximity to a small 
black variety, the Dwarf Mont d’Or. Its other near neighbor were | 
either red or speckled with red. 
Concord.— A pole variety, the beans of which are medium or rather 
large in size, irregularly globose, scarcely oblong, slightly compressed 
