282 THE CHIEF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL CROPS 



able. The number of varieties both of the sweet 

 and bitter kinds is very great, and there is always 

 some danger of the two becoming confused. Acci- 

 dents from this cause are, however, infrequent since 

 the bitter taste serves to distinguish those that are 

 poisonous. 



Malangas or Yautias (^Xantliosoma). — These are 

 the names used in Cuba and Porto Rico, respectively, 

 for the edible tubers produced by various species 

 of XantJiosoma, plants closely related to, and greatly 

 resembling, the common Caladium^ or elephant's ear, 

 of Northern conservatories and gardens. " Taro " 

 QColocasia sp.^, the famous food plant of the Hawai- 

 ian Islands and the East, is a very similar plant, that 

 also occurs in the West Indies, and is often confused 

 with the others under the same names. Other local 

 names are applied to these plants in different Ameri- 

 can tropical countries, and everywhere they consti- 

 tute an important local food supply. They grow 

 well on almost any good soil, but are particularly 

 adapted to moist, rich alluvial lands. In favorable 

 locations they yield enormously. They are used the 

 same as potatoes; they are even more nutritious, and 

 the better varieties are equally palatable. Unlike 

 yams and cassava the tubers keep almost indefinitely 

 when dug if stored in a dry place. They are propa- 

 gated by cutting up the old or so-called "mother" 

 tuber, which, though still edible, is not equal for food 

 to the new offshoots. Forty or fifty distinct varieties 

 have been recognized, though most of them are very 

 local, usually only a few kinds being known and 

 planted in any given region. 



