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yielding of foods of native races in southern China, India, the "West 

 Indies, etc. It has a rather disagreeable, acrid taste when raw, but 

 this disappears on cooking. The root may be eaten boiled, baked, 

 or cooked in other ways, and a sort of flour is also made from it. 

 The native Hawaiians eat it in the form of poi a sticky dough- 

 like dish which is allowed to ferment before it is used. The composi- 

 tion of taro has been studied in connection with the nutrition inves- 

 tigations at the University of California. It does not differ very 

 materially from potatoes in composition. Judged by a digestion ex- 

 periment made in Japan, the carbohydrates of taro compare favor- 

 ably in digestibility with those of other starchy roots, 95 per cent 

 having been assimilated. (F. B. 295.) Though among the oldest 

 cultivated plants in the world, the fifty to one hundred varieties of 

 taro now in cultivation have received very little scientific attention. 

 Undoubtedly the larger number of these forms will be found to con- 

 form to the limitations of the species. For convenience in cultural 

 discussions it may be divided into two groups, viz., the true taros and 

 the dasheens. The petioles and blades of both groups are very simi- 

 lar. However, the tuberous offsets of the dasheens are seldom found 

 among the true taros, although thickened, stolon-like, and more or 

 less superficial offsets are common under certain circumstances in 

 some of the taro types. The leaf is always peltate, though the angle 

 which the blade forms with the petiole is variable; the compara- 

 tive width of the blade and its irreglar marblings and mottled areas 

 are also inconstant. Among the dasheens a bronze-purplish shading 

 of petiole is a permanent feature, which, taken with its dwarf size 

 and the tubers, renders the two groups readily separable. Among 

 the taros color and markings run rampant; indeed, even the sap of 

 two or three varieties is colored, or at least colors instantly upon ex- 

 posure to the air. In Hawaii, where forty-five distinct varieties are 

 recognized, the taros are roughly divided into upland and lowland 

 sorts. Varieties of the latter type are usually flooded at frequent 

 intervals during the growing season, partly to keep down weeds and 

 partly because the plants require a great quantity of water. Although 

 most taros contain from 15 to 25 per cent of starch, the size of the 

 starch grain itself is so small and the gum content of the root is 

 so high that it is doubtful whether any commercial method for 

 extracting the starch from either the taro or the dasheen can readily 

 be found. However, for grinding into flour or meal or for alcoholic 

 distillation roots of both types of this section are eminently adapted. 

 Two or three companies have already placed upon the market a 

 flour made by grinding the cooked roots of some of the Hawaiian 

 taros. Perhaps the commonest, or at least the most widely dis- 

 tributed, of all the taros is the common West Indian "eddo," or, as 

 it is known in Porto Rico and Cuba, the "malanga." This variety 

 attains a height of 3 to 5 feet, has comparatively few suckers, and 

 produces in six to ten months a more or less cylindrical or fusiform 

 rhizome from 6 to 12 inches long by 3 to 4 inches in diameter. The 

 leafstalks are pale green, becoming almost white toward the base, 

 although at the point of attachment with the rhizome there is fre- 



