XV THE YAM 285 



town, for it is deservedly held in much estimation. After 

 the hurricane of 1883, when most of the provision grounds 

 in Dominica were laid waste, many of the country people 

 subsisted for weeks almost entirely on waw-waws, dug up in 

 the forests. All the yams are the produce of plants with DescriptioR 



. r 1 ^ ^ of the plant. 



slender twining stems measurmg often as much as twenty 

 feet in length, and bearing underground tubers which spring 

 from the principal roots. The tubers vary in size and weight 

 from the small cush-cush no larger than an ordinary potato, 

 to the enormous yam weighing thirty or forty pounds, and 

 measuring three feet in length. There is confusion in regard Nomen- 

 to the names and characters of the different yams, each '^'''^'''''• 

 country appearing to have its own nomenclature. There Species. 

 are four kinds of yams, however, commonly cultivated in the 

 West Indies, and the most noticeable particulars concerning 

 them are as follows : — 



White Yam. Dioscorea alata. — This is sometimes called Habitat. 

 the Barbados yam, is a native of the Moluccas and Java. 

 The stem is square and winged at each angle. The leaves 

 are large, heart-shaped, and opposite on the stem. A pecu- The bulbils, 

 liarity of this plant is that bulbils, or small yams, are borne 

 on the stem, and when they are ripe they fall to the ground 

 and reproduce the species. The tubers are large, weighing The tubers, 

 from eight to ten pounds when grown in good soil. There Varieties, 

 are two principal kinds, the white and the red, the surface of 

 the latter is of a deep purplish, and the interior of the tuber of 

 a light purplish colour. A third kind, called the water yam, The water 

 is characterised by the interior of the tuber being of a ^^'"' 

 moist and clammy nature. These yams will keep well out of 

 the ground, and they are much liked on account of their 

 digestibility, and their superior flavour. 



Negro Yam. Dioscorea sativa. — This is sometimes Habitat, 

 called the yellow, Creole, or common yam, and it is a native 

 of Java and the Philippine Islands. The stem, which grows 

 to a length of fifteen or twenty feet, is round, prickly below 



