39? 



Xot ('Illy (Iocs it not Iriiit. Imt tlic iirodiictioii of rem 

 flowers is \ory rari'. and the pro(hi(tioii of male (lowers is a|i|iare 

 ly only coninion in one known race. 



The three plates illustrate some of its races, in j 

 showiug h()W they are to he disti 11,1^11 islied from each otlie 

 tuhers. 



Ill the iipicr lilock of Plate : is shown the Sai 

 Jxlioai chacli, cnltixatcd e.\|,eriiiieiitally in the I'xitanic (. 

 .Singapore, under the (Garden's nnniher •^!M), and helow it 

 a race from the I'rovince of Bataan. in the island of Ln/.o 

 hears the (nirdeiis' nnniher '^Ki and was received without 

 cnlar name. Again in the lower hlock of the same plate 

 tipper row. with the (iardeiis' nnmher 2'.)2, is a second Saigon race 

 received under the name of 'ru-(:ii. It will he ohservod at a glance 

 that the three luimhers -^'.td. <?:(i and 2!)2, have in common neat 

 (ylindrical tuhers in closelv packed hunches. They, however, are 

 not identical, Xo. <!Tti from the Philippine islands having a bitter 

 taste, not developed in the Saiiion races: and the two Saigon races 

 being distinct is some slight morphological characters, as well as 

 in the first being a more palatable vegetable than the second. 



The Pliilipi)ine race is that of vvhicli one tuber was figured on 

 p. oo;! of the Bulletin, fig. 'i. and again in the rhilippine Agricul- 

 turist and Forester iii. IDlo, [). 2<>T fig. 2. 



All the three races ))roduce s^iinous roots : but it seems that 

 the sjiines in the Philippine race are larger than in the two Saigon 

 races. 



The lowest line of figures on plate T represents the Saigon race 

 Khoai bua ( Xo. 28.S), and the lower block of plate 8 the Assamese 

 race Moa alu, (Xo. 28G) both having lobed tubers. The name 

 " Moa alu " which means " Sweet tuber "' is of Sanskritic origin. 

 It is well applied for the tubers are distinctly sweet. 



Other races with lobed tubers have been or are being culti- 

 vated. Thus Xo. 2U of the Gardens' plots which gave figure 1 

 on p. 303 of this Bulletin and figure 4 on page 20T of the Phili})- 

 pine Agriculturist and Forester, has lobed tubers. It is of Philip- 

 pine origin, having been received from the Province of La Union 

 in Luzon. And a race with lobed tubers has been grow'n which 

 came from Lower Burma under the name of Tah-dwe-u or " Letter-d 

 yam." The distriliution therefore of lobed races is at any rate 

 more or less continuous from Assam to the Philippine islands via 

 Burma and Saigon. But it is yet to be ascertained to what degree 

 there are distinct races over this area : if. for instance, all are 

 sweet like the Assamese Moa alu, etc. In regard to the name Moa 

 alu, which is used along side that of China alu for another race, 

 it is uncertain whether it originates in a contrasting of the sweet 

 Moa alu with the race China alu, or in a contrasting of Dioscorea 

 esculeiita with other yams such as the Greater Yam which is never 

 markedly sweet to the taste like Moa alu. 



The number of tubers on a i)lant of Khoai bua is less than on 

 a i)lant of one of the three races first named, viz. <*!»<), ^lii) and 292, 

 and at the same time they are individually larger. Moa alu again 

 has fewer and larger tubers than Khoai bua : of tliein one for instance 



