DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 259 
branches of the filament, an imperfect pistil (pistillode) present or lacking. Female 
flowers with a perianth like that of the male, but smaller, imperfect stamens, or 
staminodes, 3 or 6, or lacking. Ovary 3-angled or 3-ribbed, 3-celled; styles 3, very 
short, the stigmas entire or 2-parted, recurved; ovules 2, superposed in each cell, 
pendulous. Fruit a berry or 3-valved capsule. 
Dioscorea aculeata. GUINEA YAM. PRICKLY YAM. 
LocaL NAMES.— Nika (Guam); Baliieag (Philippines) ; Kattu keldngu (Malabar); 
Hoei-trobong (Java); Kummara-baddu (Teloogoo). 
Stem aculeate, terete; leaves alternate, cordate, acuminate, 7 to 9-nerved, transverse 
veins subsimple; male spikes panicled. @ 
This brief description corresponds with some of the varieties of the ‘“nika’’ culti- 
vated in Guam. Seemann attributes to it the yam called by the Fijians ‘‘kawai,’’ 
which is in Common cultivation on most of the islands of the group, and which 
differs from the wild spiny yam called © tivoli?? (2D. nuwmmularia?) in having alternate 
instead of opposite leaves, and lacking the wiry spines about the base of the stem. 
Hooker identifies with it Rheede’s ‘ kittu) keléngu.’”? To this species also was 
assigned by Warburg the common cultivated yam of the Papuans, which he after- 
wards found to differ from Linnieus’ description in having simple male inflorescences 
and sessile flowers; also in the broad, relatively not deep sinus of the base of the 
leaf, and which he afterwards described as Dioscorea papuana.? Warburg further 
remarks that the species D. aculeata is so insufficiently and badly described, that 
perhaps a series of species is included within it. ¢ 
REFERENCES: 
Dioscorea aculeata LL. Sp. Pl. 2: 1088. 17538. 
Dioscorea aculeata Roxb. (not L.). Same as Dioscorea spinosa Roxb. 
Dioscorea alata. Witte YAM. SQUARE-STEMMED YAM. PLATE XLVIIT. 
Locvt NAMES.—Dago (Guam); Ubi, Ube (Philippines, Java, Malay Archipelago); 
Uvi (Fiji, New Zealand); Ovi, Ovidla (Madagascar); Ufi (Samoa); Uhi 
(Tahiti); Ui-parai (Rarotonga); Heei-prataen (Java); Hoel-lie lien (Sunda); 
Kap (Caroline Islands) ; Name (Panama). 
A cultivated yam having a 4-angled or 4-winged climbing stem without prickles. 
Roots very large; stem stout, often tuberiferous; leaves mostly opposite, varying 
from orbicular and deeply cordate to hastately ovate, 5 to 7-nerved; male flowers in 
slender fascicled spikes, very much as in PD. sativa; female flowers in much. stiffer 
spikes; sepals narrowly oblong or lanceolate, subvalvate; capsule broader than long, 
2h to 87 min. in diameter, very broadly obcordate, coriaceous; carpels rounded; 
seeds orbicular, broadly winged all round. 
The natives of Gruam distinguish a number of varieties all of which are known as 
“dago,’’ with roots of different sizes and shapes, varying in color from white to pur- 
ple and differing in time of maturity. Yams are left in the ground fora short while 
after the vine has turned yellow and died down. The tops of the tubers are then cut 
off with the vines attached and buried in the ground, piling the earth up around the 
base of the vine. After several weeks another yam is produced which contains a 
number of eyesor buds. This is cut up into pieces each having an eye from which the 
new plant grows. Yams are usually planted in small hillocks arranged in a large cir- 
cle, sometimes with a tree or high pole at the center. In each hill a slender pole is 
thrust and inclined toward the center of the circle, the poles forming the shape of an 
Indian tent, or all are inclined against the central tree. The ground is kept free 
«Flora Vitiensis, p. 308, 1865-73. 
’O. Warburg, Beitriige zur kenntniss der papuanischen Flora, Engler’s Botanische 
Jahrbticher, Bd. 18, pp. 273-274. 1891. 
(See Divscorea pupuana below. 
