36 ESCULENT ROOTS. 



Yellow-skin- The tubers of this variety are of a yellowish 



ned. Law. 



color, and are generally smaller, and even more 

 irregularly shaped, than those of the Common White. 

 They are, however, superior in quality, and of a more 

 agreeable taste when cooked. 



OXALIS, TUBEROUS-ROOTED. Law. 

 Tuberous-rooted Wood-sorrel. Oca. Oxalis crenata. 



Of the Tuberous-rooted Oxalis there are two varieties, as 

 follow : 



"White- Stem two feet in length, branching, prostrate 

 OCA BLANCA. or trailing ; the ends of the shoots erect ; leaves 

 trifoliate, yellowish-green, the leaflets inversely heart-shaped ; 

 flowers rather large, yellow, the petals crenate or notched 

 on the borders, and striped at their base with purple. The 

 seeds are matured only in long and very favorable seasons. 

 In its native state, the plant is perennial, but is cultivated 

 and treated, like the common potato, as an annual. 



Cultivation. The tubers should be started in a hot-bed, 

 in March, and transplanted to the open ground in May, or 

 as soon as the occurrence of settled warm weather. They 

 thrive best in dry, light, and medium fertile soils, in warm 

 situations, and should be planted in hills two feet and a half 

 apart, or in drills two feet and a half apart, setting the 

 plants or tubers an inch and a half deep, and fifteen or 

 eighteen inches apart in the drills, treating in all respects 

 as potatoes. 



The tubers form late in the season ; are white, roundish, 

 or oblong, pointed at the union with the plant, and vary in 

 size according to soil, locality, and season, seldom, however, 



