AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 565 



Bulletin Mensuel De La Societe Imperiale, Zoologique D'Acclimatation. Feb'y, 1858. 



CHINESE YAM— DIOSCOREA BATATAS. 



Botanists do not designate any but Dioscorea under the name 

 of Igname. It appears that in India, Africa and America the 

 starch roots, differ much from one another. Among the various 

 Ignaraes lately received by the Society of Acclimation, there are 

 the AroidsDS, (cakdium, arum,) the convolvulaceas, (Batatas, 

 convolvulus,) and even the composees, (Helianthus.) We have 

 also a native Igname, the Notre-Dame-Seal or Tame, (Tamus 

 Communis of Linneeus,) frequently met with on the borders of 

 our forests, which are of the same family as the Dioscorea or true 

 Ignames, Montigny says that in China the Dioscorea Batata is 

 called Sain-in; other travellers call it Saya. In the Chinese books 

 it bears the names Chouyar, Tschou-ye, Toutchyu, Chanyo, 

 Chan-yu, Mr. Jomard proposes to call it the Montigny 

 Dioscorea. 



The word Igname conies from the East Indian word, Inhame 

 or Yam, which is of African origin— Yam signifying to eat — 

 along the coast of Guinea. It is true that two early travellers in 

 America, cited by Humboldt, heard this word Igname on the 

 American continent, viz: Vespucci in 1497, on the coast of Para, 

 and Cabral in Brazil in 1500. However this may be, Burmann, 

 in his Thesaurus Zeylanicus, page 206, in 1737, calls the Dios- 

 corea alata of Linnseus, by the name of Rizophora — Indica or 

 Inhame rubra (red Igname.) We find also in many ancient 

 Botanists, that it was called Igname Malabarica — Inhame 

 Javanica, Inhame Curassavica, Igname Maderaspatana. The 

 word is feminine. In 1846 Vice Admiral Cecille, one of our 

 honorary members, gave an account of it as a long tuber, and 

 sent it to our Musuem of Natural History. It was planted in a 

 pot, under glass, but showed nothing remarkable until 1850. In 

 this year our indefatigable associate, Mr. Montigny, consul of 

 France, at Chang-Hai, sent a number of these tubers to the Min- 

 isters of Commerce and Agriculture, as being very much esteemed 

 in China and in Siam. Their culture has perfectly succeeded 

 They belong to the genus Igname or Dioscorea. Convinced of the 

 advantages of this new Igname, Montigny sent us in 1855 a con- 

 siderable number of the roots, and little balbs, (Bulbilles.) 



