378 



The Malay Anliipcla.iiio a.'; rc.a'ard.s the potato is like the 

 Madras Prcsideiicv : it lias mountains where tiie potato can bo 

 grown, and lowlands wlu'i'c it cannot: but P^uropean enterprise has 

 touched so little of tlie mountains, that the possibilities are deve- 

 loped nowhere except in Java : and under the existing- circumstances 

 the (ireater Yam is a desirable vegetable. 



Two drawl)acl<s have to be admitted at the outset, namely 

 the time that the crop is in the ground, and the circumstance that 

 owing to its mucilaginous nature, it boils badly ; but in this Bulletin, 

 No. f) pp. not-OO,-). other ways of cooki)ig it have been given. 



The writer l)egaii the study of yams conjointly with Sir David 

 Prain when in India; and a collection of living plants was got 

 together in the Royal Botanic (ilardens, Calcutta, not only from 

 all parts of India, but also from Ceylon and by the kindness of 

 Mr. W. Jackson, of the Queensland Sugar Eefining Co., from 

 Fiji. Much of the material was examined and gradually dis- 

 carded for one reason or another, and most particularly because 

 the climate of Calcutta proved unsuitable for the more slowly matur-. 

 ing southern races: but in lOU Major A. T. Gage, now Superin- 

 tendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens, there, was so good as to 

 send to Singapore a selection from what remained. This, together 

 with two collections from Manila, one from Saigon, one from Port 

 Darwin, two from the Gold Coast and two from Southern Xigeria, 

 and also some local races, forms the new Singapore collection. To 

 the Department of Agriculture of the Philippine Islands, through 

 Mr. 0. T. Barrett, and to Professor C. F. Baker, of the College of 

 Agriculture, Los Banos, P. I., Singa])ore is indebted for the 

 Philippine Yams, including one from the Caroline Islands and 

 several from the Island of Guam. To Mr. C. E. F. Allen, former- 

 ly Curator of the Botanic Station, Port Darwin. Singapore is in- 

 debted for the tui)ers from Xorthern Australia. To M. Morange, 

 of the Botanic (hardens in Saigon, Singapore is indebted for the 

 tubers rccci\ed thcncf : and to the Botanic establishments of the 

 two African cohinics Un- the tubers which were sent througli Kcw to 

 Singapore. 



The Philii)pine collections were reported on briefly in this 

 Bulletin No. t) pp. 297-30-1- and also in the Pliilippine Agriculturist 

 and Forester iii. 1915 pp. 205-209, the object of the reports being 

 rather to indicate the range of variation observed in a preliminary 

 investigation that to classify the races. In this report however, 

 the lines of a classification will l)e laid down ; but the whole collec- 

 tion can by no means be brought under discussion. 



Many of the races of yam, now Ijcing grown, have been ob- 

 tained from far away, witness those from \Vest Africa, and in 

 spite of the most excellent packing the roots unavoidably suffer on 

 the way. The procedure on arrival of a consignment is this : — the 

 tubers are unpacked and examined, the dead tissue is cut away, 

 and tlie outside of the living tissue treated with permanganate of 

 ])otash; then what has been saved is planted. In every case new 



