340 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



very large, largest of all. It is called the pauncli, and it receives 

 the vegetable matter partially chewed, so that it occupies conside- 

 rable space. 



DIOSCOREA BATATAS CULTIVATED AT NANCY. 



Letter from Mr. Godron, Dean of the Faculty of Science to the 

 Imperial Society, President of the Regional Society of Acclima- 

 tion for the north-eastern division of France : 



"The Dioscoreas sent to me by the society for experiment last 

 year, arrived late and were not planted until the last of June and 

 first days of July. They were distributed to thirty members of 

 our Regional Society for trial, which has been made throughout 

 this region. Reports have not yet come in except from our 

 Nancy. I planted about fifty tubers in our garden of plants, and 

 in soil bad enough, for in thirty years j^ast and more it has never 

 been manured or dug up. I planted them one foot apart every 

 way. They vegetated soon, but could not attain their full growth. 

 I left them in the ground during last winter, and by way of pre- 

 caution I scattered over them some leaves of trees. None of them 

 were frozen, although the thermometer marked 15^. In the 

 beginning of May the young growth came up; a late frost killed 

 the upper ends of them, but lateral shoots soon sprung up vigor- 

 ously, and grew from ten to thirteen feet long. Many flowered in 

 August. When I gathered the crop I was astonished at the result, 

 and especially in a piece of ground consisting of silicious alluvion, 

 mixed with reddish clay, making a very compact soil. I found 

 we had to make a trench between the rows to dig them out. The 

 vines grew to ten and twelve feet long. One half of them produced 

 tubers nearly three feet long. They were, some of them flattened, 

 broader in one place than another, with very unequal surfaces. 

 We attributed this to the nature of the soil and especially to the 

 gravel in it. 



Mr. Kaufman a member of the Imperial society, and also of the 

 Acclimation society of Berlin, states that the tubers were not in- 

 jured by the winter (left in the ground,) any where in Hanover. 



The President presented (among other things) the Igname of 

 Brazil, just brought from thence. Mr. Tannay says that we should 

 compare them (Caladium esculentum) with the Dioscorea batatas 



