64 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



from the Malay archipelago. The growth and consumption of 

 these foreign species were peculiarly favoured by circumstances of 

 climate, or else were developed as the results of particular tastes. 



The Japanese prefer above all the sweet bulbs of several Araceae, 

 especially the Taro, and also the Batate. They are therefore more 

 largely cultivated than all the others. To follow, however, the 

 natural order, let us here consider : 



I. The lotus-plant, Jap. Hasu and Renge [Nelumbo micifera, 

 Gaertn. ; Nehnubiinn speciosiim, Wild.; Nyniphcea nucifera, L.). Its 

 home is the Indian monsoon-region, where it was first sacred to 

 Siva, then to Buddha. It is difficult to determine whether Buddhist 

 priests transplanted it thence to the countries of Chinese civiliza- 

 tion, or whether it was already indigenous there. As far as Japan is 

 concerned, I incline to the former supposition. It is certainly never 

 found growing wild, either in China or Japan. On the contrary, it 

 is often planted in ponds, partly for the sake of its magnificent 

 blossoms, partly to obtain its edible rhizome, called Renkon in 

 Japan, or on account of its oily nuts. 



Its cylindrical white rhizomes attain a considerable length, and 

 a thickness of from 8 to 12 cm. They lie far down in the mud. 

 They are divided by constricting fibres into long fingers, which 

 when cut across disclose a very porous substance permeated by 

 numerous concentric canals.^ These rhizomes contain a tolerable 

 amount of starch, and are boiled and eaten in considerable quan- 

 tities. To Europeans their insipid mealy taste is not agreeable ; 

 but the Japanese and Chinese think a great deal of them, chiefly 

 because they consider them very healthy, being easily digested by 

 children and old men. (For Nitphar japoniciun and Nyiriphcea 

 tetragona, see the chapter following.) 



2. Arrow-head, Jap. Kuwai {Sagittaria sagittce folia, L.). This 

 plant does not follow in the botanical system, but by the nature of its 

 cultivation and use it does. In China, too, the arrow-head is grown in 

 ponds as a food. Its rhizomes form white, spherical protuberances, 

 which, when boiled, taste like chestnuts (water-chestnuts). The 

 starch prepared from them is said t,o be used in China like arrow-root. 



3. 6gi {Hedysarum esculentuin, Led.). Like the two kinds 

 that follow, this papilionacea is not cultivated, and is of no great 

 consequence in Japan as a source of food. The tubercle produced 

 by it (I had an opportunity of seeing it only once) outwardly re- 

 sembles truffles. As noted by Gmelin in his " Flora Sibirica," the 

 plant prefers stony places, as, for example, in Japan, the slopes 

 of Fuji-san. Its proper home is Siberia,* where it is much eaten by 

 the Samoyedes. 



4. Hodo, or Hodo-imo {Apios Fortunei, Maxim.). Found in con- 



1 According to Herodotus, II. 92, the edible root of the Egyptian lotus was 

 round, and about the size of an apple. If his statement is correct, the plant 

 must have been some other Nymphasacea, but was certainly not the same as 

 the lotus of the monsoon-region, with which we are concerned here. 



