DIOSCOREA 



ALATA 



Yams 



THE INDIAN YAMS 



D.E.P., 

 iii., 115-36. 

 Yams. 



D.E.P., 

 iii., 181. 



D.E.P., 

 iii., 126-7. 

 Barbados 

 Yam. 



Commonest 

 Indian Yam. 



hue to the pasturage. It is the asbarg dye and medicine of Indian 

 shops. 



The dried flowers and fragments of the flowering spikes constitute the asbarg. 

 It is the ghafiz, asperag, gul jalil, zalil, zarir, trayamdn, etc. Is imported by 

 Trans-frontier traders, who bring it to Multan and other Panjab towns where it 

 is employed along with akalber and alum to dye silk. [Cf. Pharmacog. Ind., i., 

 23-7 ; Kew Bull, 1895, 167 ; Briihl, Ann. Roy. Bot. Oard. Gale., 1896, v., pt. 2, 

 90-108 ; Monog. Dyes and Dyeing in Bomb., 1896, 17 ; also U.Prov., 1896, 82 ; 

 Perkin and Pilgrim, Trans. Chem. Soc., 1898, 267-75 ; also Proc. Chew,. Soc., 

 1898, No. 190 ; Imp. Inst. Tech. Repts., 1903, i., 214 ; ii., 221.] 



DIOSCOREA, Linn. ; Watt, Sd. Eec. Govt. Ind., 1888-9, i., 

 147-66 ; Duthie and Fuller, Field and Gard. Crops, 1893, pt. iii., pi. Ixxx. ; 

 Sadebeck, Die Kulturgew. der Deut. Kolon., 1899, 68-71 ; Wiesner, Die 

 Rohst. des Pflanzenr., i., 567-608 ; Mollison, Textbook Ind. Agri., iii., 

 197-200 ; Prain, Beng. Plants, 1903, ii., 1064-7 ; Eyan, Journ. Bomb. Nat. 

 Hist. Soc., 1903, xiv., 772-5 ; R.E.P., Rept. 1903, 27-8 ; Prain and Burkill, 

 Journ. As. Soc. Beng., 1904, Ixxiii., pt. ii., 183-7 ; 1904 (suppl.), 1-11 ; 

 the YAMS DIOSCOREACE.E. 



Indian Species and Varieties- The account given in the Dictionary of this very 

 difficult and imperfectly known genus of edible plants was written in 1888. It 

 was subsequently arranged by the Government of India that a concentrated 

 effort should be made to secure fuller and more accurate information. Collections 

 of live tubers, accordingly, began to arrive in 1894, and continued to be received 

 during the subsequent years. It was agreed that the yams as received 

 should be cultivated in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta. They are 

 therefore being systematically studied. A preliminary and unofficial report 

 has already appeared, written by Prain and Burkill, and descriptions of certain 

 species have been given in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, but further 

 material and more detailed information are deemed essential before the final 

 report can be given to the public, and this seems likely to assume the form of 

 a monograph of the Indian species of the genus. All that need be attempted 

 here, therefore, is to abbreviate the Dictionary article, and to abstract and 

 incorporate from Prain and Burkill's preliminary report (and all other recent 

 publications) such additional information as seems calculated to bring the present 

 account abreast of existing knowledge. 



Prain (Bengal Plants, I.e. ) sketches very briefly the classification that seems 

 likely to be followed in the future. The Bengal species are referred to two great 

 groups according as the stems twine to the left or to the right of the observer. 

 This brings the following together as those that twine to the left D. dteniona, 

 jtfntnphylla, tontentona, biiHrifera, tleltoitten, and fnsc-tetilatn ; those that 

 twine to the right, -O. nngriinn, nctiletita, nutnninluvia, Hnntlltont and nlntn. 

 Within these groups the species are assorted according to the characters of the 

 leaves, inflorescence, capsules, seeds and aerial bulbs. It may be useful to set 

 forth in alphabetical sequence of their names the economic information of the 

 chief Indian species and varieties : 



D. aculeata, Linn. ; Prain, I.e. ii., 1067 ; D. glabra, D.E.P. ; D. Wallichii, Hook., 

 /., Fl. Br. Ind.. vi., 295. A plant cultivated in Bengal, Assam, the Deccan, 

 South India and Burma ; in the last province it is apparently also wild. 



D. alata, Linn. ; Fl. Br. Ind., vi., 296 ; Prain, I.e. 1067 ; Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind., ii., 

 143 ; iii., 288 ; Circ. Roy. Bot. Gard. Ceylon, 1905, iii., 10-4. The Wing-stalked 

 Yam, the Barbados Yam, kham. This seems closely allied to the Chinese yam, 

 D. Sntntas, Decaisne. 



This is the commonest of all the Indian cultivated yams. It is a large climber 

 with quadrangular winged stems which twine to the right. The capsule is broader 

 than long and the seeds winged all round. Leaves rather sharply angled. In- 

 florescence only occasionally produced and often zig-zag in structure. Tubers 

 frequently very large, sometimes four to eight feet in length and as thick as 

 the thigh (Conserv. For. Repts. S. Circ. Mad., May 1889), at other times small 

 and globular like an average-sized potato. One or two species of yam are fre- 

 quently alluded to in Sanskrit literature, and this would appear to be perhaps 

 the form most often mentioned. Roxburgh assigned four or five tubers to sepa- 



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