WILD AND CULTIVATED FORMS 



DIOSCOREA 



DELTOIDEA 



Detergent TuberB 



H.. how. -MT, 



rate specific positions, chiefly on account oi then h,i|,. and colour. 

 admitted that lie would !>< quite prepared to accept all these races (for they 

 t<> !.- little else than races) as belonging to the same species. These were 

 it. iiti-i>im i-iiinfii . !//..<.. i . ,,,,,,,,,,, ii and inix-iiii (/,'./.!'., /'/. Ind., iii., lUUnettr 



I). They are classified into tubers elongate, at times club-shape<l. 

 flesh being white throughout in <//< proper, pink under the wkm m <>> //, 

 purple throughout in /> j.m -<i ; tuborH short, roundish, and flesh wholly 

 uhite iii tf/b<( ; rosy purple under the skin in i/f6rii, and rosy purple 

 in <ir..jio ;.. i. .1. 1 >. Hooker places these names as denoting "imperfectly 

 knou n and undeterminable species." Prain and Burkill, however, after a careful 

 .-tiidy ot the live plants, have recorded Roxburgh's four forms above named 

 under it. niiiin. Linn., and have formed varietal positions for each (Note, I.e. 

 l!Mi:{ K N'o. 846). These are as follows : 



(a) Var. alata proper ; D. Hamiltoni, Hook., /. (in part). The White Yam. White Yam. 

 Tins is said to ho a large climber, fairly abundantly cultivated in Bengal, 

 Assam, the Tinted Provinces, the Central Provinces, the Deccan, South India, 

 Burma and Ceylon. It varies very greatly, however, in some of its areas. 



(6) Var. globosa; D. globoaa, Roxb., Duthie and Fuller, Field and Gard. Crops, 

 pt. iii., 11; D. globoaa, D.E.P., iii., 131; the Common Yam. This also is a Common Yam. 

 large climber that is fairly extensively cultivated, more especially in the Central 

 Provinces and Madras. It is the chupri-alu, fergo-nari. 



(c) Var. rubella; a large climber, extensively grown, especially in Bengal, 

 tin- Central Provinces, Western India and the Deccan. It yields a long tuber, 

 red outside, known as the guraniya-alu. 



(d) Var. purpurea ; the Dark Purple Yam : the Malacca Yam, or lab-guraniya. 

 A large climber fairly extensively cultivated. 



D. angulna, Roxb.'; Fl. Br. Ind., vi., 293; Prain, Beng. Plants, ii., 1066. A 

 large climber met with occasionally in the forests and jungles of the lower hills 

 in Nepal to Bhutan, also Chota Nagpur and Assam. The tuber is only eaten 

 by the poor or in times of scarcity, and is called kukur-alu. 



D. bulbifera, Linn. , D. sativa, Benth. ; D. pulchella and D. crispata, Roxb. ; 

 Hermann, Parad. Bat., 1698, t. 217 ; D. sativa, Willd. Duthie and Fuller, 

 Field and Garden Crops, pt. iii., 11, t. Ixxx. ; D. sativa, Linn. Hooker (Trimen, 

 Fl. Ceyl., iii., 279) calls this " the wild uneatable state of the cultivated 

 plant." This fairly extensive climber is common in the hedges and thickets of 

 India and Burma. It is a distinct species, the capsule being longer than broad, 

 and the seeds winged at the base only ; the leaves are bright shining green and 

 the transverse nerves rest within channels. The tubers are round, not larger 

 than a man's fist. The stem, like that of n. ainta, bears numerous little tubers 

 by which the plant may be propagated. The aerial tubers also afford characters 

 by which the varieties may be separately recognised. The underground tubers 

 of the wild plant are insipid and often hardly edible, unless repeatedly boiled 

 and washed in running water between each boiling. Nevertheless, the wild forms 

 collectively constitute a fairly important article of food in times of scarcity and Famine Food, 

 famine. [Cf. Acosta, Tract, de las Drogas, 1578, 321.] 



(a) Var. bulbifera proper. The agricultural states of this variety are often 

 designated in India as n. mttiva, and the recently introduced forms are spoken 



of as the Otaheite Potato. The wild tubers are regularly eaten, though more otaheite 

 bitter than the cultivated. An interesting official correspondence recently took Potato. 

 place regarding the successful conveyance (by Capt. H. D. Larymore) of seed- 

 tubers of the so-called Otaheite Potato from the Andaman Islands to West Africa. 



(b) Var. pulchella; D. pulchella, Roxb. ; D. sativa, Linn.; Fl. Br. Ind., vi., D.E.P., 

 295 (in part) ; D. bulbifera, D.E.P. A climber^ fairly generally met with in iii., 128. 

 cultivation. It is in India often known as the rat-alu. 



(c) Var. criapata; Roxb., Fl. Ind., iii., 802. A fairly prevalent climber in D.E.P., 

 India and Burma, known as zamin-kand. iii., 129. 



D. deltoidea, Wall. ; Prain and Burkill, Journ. As. Soc. Beng., 1904, Ixxiii., D.E.P., 

 pt. ii., suppl., 1-2, 5-6. This is a common species in the N.W. Himalaya at iii., 129. 

 altitudes between 3,000 and 8,000 feet flowering time in May. It is an ex- 

 tensive climber, often covering trees more or less. Stewart gives a long list of 

 vernacular names which in the Dictionary it was suggested belonged to all the 

 species met with in Upper India. Even to the present day a distribution of these 

 names has not been accomplished. The tubers are often very large, but 

 appai-ently not eaten. In Kullu they are called shingli, and used for washing Detergent 

 wool. Stewart says that in Khayhan they are called krise and used in Tubers. 



493 



Loner Red 

 Tuber. 



Dark Purple 

 Yam. 



D.E.P., 

 iii., 127. 



D.E.P., 

 iii., 12&-9. 

 A. Wild Yam. 



