PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SUBTERRANEAN PARTS. 73 



Colocasia Arum esculentum, Linnaeus; Colocasia 

 antiquorum, Schott. 1 



This species is cultivated in the damp districts of the 

 tropics, for the swelled lower portion of the stem, which 

 forms an edible rhizome similar to the subterraneous 

 part of the iris. The petioles and the young leaves are 

 also utilized as a vegetable. Since the different forms of 

 the species have been properly classed, and since we have 

 possessed more certain information about the floras of 

 the south of Asia, we cannot doubt that this plant is 

 wild in India, as Roxburgh 2 formerly, and Wight 3 and 

 others have more recently asserted ; likewise in Ceylon, 4 

 Sumatra, 5 and several islands of the Malay Archipelago. 6 



Chinese books make no mention of it before a work 

 of the year 100 B.C. 7 The first European navigators saw 

 it cultivated in Japan and as far as the north of New 

 Zealand, 8 in consequence probably of an early introduc- 

 tion, and without the certain co-existence of wild stocks. 

 When portions of the stem or of the tuber are thrown 

 away by the side of streams, they naturalize themselves 

 easily. This was perhaps the case in Japan and the 

 Fiji Islands, 9 judging from the localities indicated. The 

 colocasia is cultivated here and there in the West Indies, 

 and elsewhere in tropical America, but much less than 

 in Asia or Africa, and without the least indication of an 

 American origin. 



In the countries where the species is wild there are 

 common names, sometimes very ancient, totally different 

 from each other, which confirms their local origin. Thus 

 the Sanskrit name is kuchoo, which persists in modern 



1 Arum Egyptium, Columma, Ecphrasis, ii. p. 1, tab. 1 ; Rum- 

 phius, Amboin, vol. v. tab. 109. Arum colocasia and A. esculentum, 

 LinnaBiis ; Colocasia antiquorum, Schott, Melet., i. 18 ; Bugler, in D. C. 

 Monog. Phaner., ii. p. 491. 



Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., iii. p. 495. 3 Wight, Icones, t. 786. 



Thwaites, Enum. Plant. Zeylan., p. 335. 



Miquel, Sumatra, p. 258. 



Rumphius, Amboin, vol. v. p. 318. 



Bretschneider, On the Study and Value, etc., p. 12, 



Forster, De Plantis Escul., p. 58. 



Franchet and Savatier, Enum., p. 8j Seemann, Flora Vitiensif, 

 p. 284. 



