No. 144.] 473 



the stalk being slightly covered with earth. .In fifteen to twenty 

 days these cuttings have formed tubers and new stalks. It is ne- 

 cessary to lift these stalks occasionelly, to prevent their rooting at 

 the joints. We found in the great Chinese National Encyclope- 

 dia, the Pen-Tsao-Kang-Mo, that, this yam is called by several 

 names, such as Chou-Yu, Tchou-Yu, Tou-Tschou, Chan-Tchou, 

 Chan-Yo, Chan-Yu, all of which mean mountain yam. 



There is no doubt whatever that this yam is so superior as a 

 substitute fur the potato, that all lately heralded tubers— Ulluco, 

 Picotiana, Psoralea esculenta, Apios tuberosa, Tropoeolum tuber- 

 ossum, Topinambour and Arracacha. 



In this age we are not obliged to struggle forever against pre- 

 judice like that against the potato, which lasted almost two hun- 

 dred years. 



NEW USEFUL PLANT. 



[From the same.] 



Sorgho Sucre, Holens faccharatus, Andropozon saccharatus, a 

 Chinese grass, from Consul Montigny at Chang-Hai. As long ago 

 as 1766, Pietro Arduino, at Florence, in Italy, made experiments 

 on this grass to maiiufature sugar from it. This grass has a slen- 

 der stalk, growing coramonlv from six to ten feet in rich soils, 

 and sometimes more than ten feet high. The stalks are straight, 

 smooth, with leaves recumbent and flexible; it resembles Indian 

 cor/i, but is a more elegant plant than that. It generally pro- 

 duces at the top a tuft composed of eight or ten stems, which 

 form a conical panicle of flowers, which are green at first, then 

 violet, and at maturity of a dark burple. It is probably an an- 

 annsial, and it is cultivated much as Indian corn is. The pure 

 juice of this grass is almost colorless; when fermented it resem- 

 bles cider. Its density is 1 050 to 1,075. The pio:» Ttion of 

 sugar is from ten to sixteen per cent— I mean the two u -ais, the 

 crystallizable and non-crystallizable, the. latter being ;:bi>ut one- 

 third of the whole. It does appear to me likely to compete with 

 beet sugar in the nor herly and middle portions of France. In 

 Loui.-iana, &c , it probably may surpass the sugar cane in yield 

 of sugar. Like the sugar, its green leaves and tops afford abun- 



