Princess. Vil.
A French variety. Plant six feet or more in height, with lively-green foliage and white flowers; the pods are five inches long, pale-green while young, yellow at maturity, and contain six or seven, and sometimes eight, seeds.
The ripe bean is white, egg-shaped, two-fifths of an inch long, and a fourth of an inch thick: nearly three thousand are contained in a quart, and will plant three hundred and fifty hills.
The variety somewhat resembles the Prédhomme; but the seeds are larger and brighter, the pods are longer, the seeds are less close in the pods, and it is some days earlier. It ripens in about three months from the time of planting. A good sort for stringing, and of excellent quality when ripe.
Red Cranberry.
This is one of the oldest and most familiar of garden-beans, and has probably been longer and more generally cultivated in this country than any other variety.
The plants are five or six feet high, of medium strength and vigor; flowers pale-lilac. The pods are quite irregular in form; often reversely curved, or sickle-shaped; four inches and a half long; yellowish-green while young; clear-white when suitable for shelling; yellowish-white, shrivelled, and contorted, when ripe; and contain five or six seeds.
Its season is intermediate. If planted early, the variety will blossom in seven weeks, yield young pods in nine weeks, green beans in eleven weeks, and ripen in ninety-five days. In favorable seasons, the crop will ripen if the seeds are planted the last of June; but, for the young pods or for green beans, plantings may be made to near the middle of July.
Seeds clear, deep-purple, the hilum white, round-ovoid, slightly compressed, half an inch long, and about three-eighths of an inch in depth and thickness. Fourteen hundred and fifty seeds are contained in a quart, and will plant a hundred and fifty hills.
It is a hardy and productive variety, principally grown as a string-bean. The pods are succulent and tender; and these qualities are retained to a very advanced stage of growth, or until quite of suitable size for shelling. The dark color of the bean, which is to some extent imparted to the pods in the process of cooking, is by some considered an objection; and the White Cranberry, though perhaps less prolific, is preferred. As a shelled-bean, it is of good quality in its green state; but, in its ripened state, little used, though dry and farinaceous.