on the approach of warm weather; when new shoots will
soon make their appearance, and the plants will blossom a second time
early and abundantly.

The plants are twelve feet or more in height or length, with deep-green
foliage and brilliant scarlet flowers; the latter being produced in
spikes, on long footstalks. The pods are six inches long, nearly an inch
broad, somewhat hairy while young, sickle-shaped and wrinkled when more
advanced, light reddish-brown when ripe, and contain four or five seeds.

It requires the whole season for its perfection, and should be planted
as early as the weather will admit. The plants will then blossom in
seven or eight weeks, produce young pods in nine weeks, green seeds in
twelve weeks, and ripen in a hundred and fifteen days.

The ripe seeds are lilac-purple, variegated with black, or deep
purplish-brown,--the edge, or border, little, if any, marked; hilum long
and white; form broad-kidney-shaped; size large,--if well grown,
measuring seven-eighths of an inch long, six-tenths of an inch broad,
and three-eighths of an inch thick. About five hundred and fifty are
contained in a quart, and will plant eighty hills.

In this country, it is usually cultivated as an ornamental, climbing
annual; the spikes of rich, scarlet flowers, and its deep-green foliage,
rendering the plant one of the most showy and attractive objects of the
garden.

Though inferior to some of the finer sorts of garden-beans, its value as
an esculent has not been generally appreciated. The young pods are
tender and well flavored; and the seeds, green or ripe, are much
esteemed in many localities. "In Britain, the green pods only are used;
on the Continent, the ripened seeds are as much an object of culture; in
Holland, the Runners are grown in every cottage-garden for both
purposes; while, in France and Switzerland, they are grown chiefly for
the ripened seeds. In England, they occupy a place in most
cottage-gardens, and are made both ornamental and useful. They cover
arbors, are trained over pales and up the walls of cottages, which they
enliven by the brightness of their blossoms; while every day produces a
supply of wholesome and nutritious food for the owner. The French, now
enthusiastically fond of this legume, at one time held it in utter
detestation."

PAINTED LADY-RUNNER.

A sub-variety of the Scarlet-runner, with variegated flowers; the upper
petals being scarlet, the lower white. The ripe seeds are pal