3^0 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



more than any otlier fibre. The product per acre is most extra- 

 ordinary. Three cuttings a year, yielding from one to one and a 

 half tons an acre of clean fibre — while flax yields but from 300 

 to 500 lbs. an acre. 



VITALITY OF THE DIOSCOREA BATATAS, OR CHINESE 



YAM. 



By M. P. Duchartre. 



The attention of gardeners is now so fixed upon the cultivation 

 of this Igname, (yam) that all the facts in reference to it should 

 be stated. I ask permission of the Lnperial Society to lay before 

 it some of them. I have heretofore stated the remarkable 

 energetic vitality of this tuber, and submit the following: 



On the first of July, 1855, M. Francois Delessert, received 

 from Shanghai a considerable quantity of the tubers, being of 

 the Chinese crop of 1855. They came around the Cape of Good 

 Hope; a long passage. But they, that is, the sections of them, 

 (for the Chinese always cut each 3'am into three pieces,) all arrived 

 in very good condition, (trc's bon etat). They were simply closed 

 up in a cask filled in with sandy earth. There were mixed with 

 them a production w^hich we are unacquainted with, at least, as 

 far as my knowledge extends. These were a sort of thick stalks 

 about one centimetre (three-eights of an inch) thick, and varying 

 in length from ten to twenty centimetres (from four to eight 

 inches) long, quite irregular lengths, some a little branched, with 

 the tubercles still attached to them, resembling, what are called, 

 rhizomes, (horizontal roots.) I planted pieces of the yams, from 

 an inch to four inches long, on the 7th of July, in a very light 

 soil near the southerly side of a wall. I left them out all winter 

 without the least shelter. In May last, I examined the tubers 

 and found them exactly as sound as when they were planted, ten 

 months before, (July.) I believe it would be difficult, if not 

 impossible, to find another feculent tuber (starch) to keep so 

 well in the ground. I find that this Chinese yam will keep 

 sound in the earth under very unfavorable circumstances, for 

 two years, at least. This is a distinguished merit highly profit- 

 able to the farmer, and deserves a particular notice of the 

 Imperial Society. 



