Vegetables 



257 



Of the total imports 2,525,741 

 cwt. were from foreign countries, 

 and 1,138,549 cwt. from British 

 possessions. Nearly the whole of 

 our imports consist of early new 

 potatoes. 



SWEET POTATOES 

 AND YAMS 



In tropical countries sweet 

 potatoes and yams take the place 

 of the ordinary potato. Yams, 

 the tubers of various species of 

 Dioscorea, are cultivated in nearly 

 all tropical countries as important 

 esculents. The Black Bryony of 

 our hedgerows is a close relative 

 of the yams, and has a large 

 underground tuber which, how- 

 ever, is of no use as a food. 

 Yam tubers abound in farinaceous 

 matter and often reach a large 

 size, weighing as much as from 

 thirty to sixty lbs. 



Sweet potatoes are the thick- 

 ened roots of Ipomoea Batatas, a 

 climbing plant belonging to the 

 Bindweed or Convolvulus family. 

 This plant is extensively culti- 

 vated in most tropical countries, 

 although not known in a wild 

 state. The root contains much 

 starch and saccharine matter. 



OTHER EDIBLE 

 TUBERS 



■"> .ftPE 1 __ 



By permission of Messrs. Sutton & Sons, Reading 



CELERY 



Arracacha (Arr acacia escu- 

 lenta), a plant allied to the 



parsnip and carrot, is extensively cultivated in the Andes, and has become naturalised in 

 Jamaica. 



Under the name of " Crosnes " the tubers of Stachys tuberifera were introduced into this 

 country by way of France from Northern China in 1887. 



Jerusalem Artichokes, the tubers of a sunflower (Helianthus iuberosus), originally intro- 

 duced in the early part of the seventeenth century from the Northern United States of 

 America, are widely cultivated as an article of food. 



PULSES 



These are all members of the Pea family, and are among the most important of foodstuffs ; 

 they are cultivated and used in large quantities in all parts of the world. In countries like 

 India and China, where, relatively speaking, very little meat is eaten by the natives, pulses 

 are an absolute necessity cf life, constituting the chief nitrogenous foods. Before the spread of 



