GAKDEN OF THE SOCIETY. 59 



frame ; they came up in about a fortnight, and were potted singl}', 

 when fit, in five-inch pots, in which each plant produced a great 

 number of tubers, some of them of the size above mentioned. They 

 are larger than is usually obtained from potatoes raised from 

 seed, in the first season. 



Having obtained tubers, two of them were kept dry for 

 a fortnight, and then started in beat. They are now growing 

 well and will probably flower. If the tubers can be deprived by 

 any means of the bitter which they naturally possess, they might 

 form an agreeable dish. — R. T. 



No flowers having been produced in the Garden the real name 

 of this plant cannot be determined. That of Gesnera esculeuta 

 is not to be found in works on systematical botany. That it is a 

 stove plant seems, however, to be certain ; and therefore it is 

 improbable that, even if palatable, it will ever possess any 

 horticultural value. 



:]. TROP.EOLUit ILI3KKOSUJI. 



Although not cultivated as yet in the Society's garden this 

 deserves mention in an account of newly introduced esculents. 

 It produces an abundance of very pretty yellow and red pear- 

 shaped tubers from two to three inches long ; and since it is as 

 hardy as a potatoe there is no reason to doubt its lieing cultivable ; 

 but it is a question whether its flavour, which is not very 

 agreeable in its ordinary condition, can be improved in England, 

 as it is in La Paz, its native country. Upon this subject 

 M. Decaisne has some interesting observations to the following 

 effect : — 



" The tubers of the Tropseolum tuberosum, designated Ysano 

 at La Paz, require to be prepared before they become edible. 

 Indeed when they were prepared in Europe like potatoes, 

 and immediately after being taken up, their taste was very 

 disagreeable. But a mode of making them palatable was dis- 

 covered in Bolivia, and the Ysano has there become, if not a 

 common vegetable, at least one which is quite edible. The means 

 consist in freezing them after they have been cooked, and they 

 are eaten when frozen. In this state M. Weddell affirms that 

 they constitute an agreeable dish, and that scarcely a day passes 

 at La Paz without two lines of dealers being engaged in selling 

 nothing e.xcept Ysano, which they protect from the action of the 

 sun by enveloping it in a woollen cloth, and straw. 



