184 



DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. 



of a century it has been successfully cultivated as a market-crop in eastern 

 Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and southern New Jersey ; in fact the sweets, 

 as they are called in New York market, from south Jersey are as popular as 

 the Carolinas. It is grown in southern Spain and Italy, The British Isles 

 are too damp for it. 



Etijmoloyij. — Ipomoea, the generic name, is derived by Loudon from the 

 Greek iy^, a worm, and oixoios, like, — like a worm. Batatas comes from the 

 Spanish batata, the native name of the sweet potato. Potato is a corruption 

 of batatas, and siveet refers to the taste of this species. 



History. — Its home is held by some authorities to be America; by others, 

 Asia ; and there seem to be good reasons for believing it to be indigenous 

 both to Asia and America. It was introduced into southern Europe by the 

 Spaniards soon after the discovery of America. It now forms an important 



article of food throughout tropical and 

 subtropical countries, and needs a high 

 temperature to develop the peculiar 

 delicate sweet taste. 



It is not known when this tuber was 

 introduced into the kitchen. 



Cultivation. — The mode of cultivat- 

 ing the sweet potato is to place the 

 tubers in a hot-bed, where they sprout. 

 The sprouts, when six to ten inches 

 long, are taken off and transplanted, in 

 the same manner as cabbage-plants are 

 treated. They grow to greatest per- 

 fection as to quality in loose sand. A 

 shovelful of well-rotted barnyard man- 

 ure is dropped, and over it with a hoe 

 is formed a conical hill, in the top of 

 which the plant is transplanted ; in 

 about two mouths tlie tubers begin to 

 form about the base of the plant, which 

 by that time has become a prostrate vine, six to ten feet in length, rooting at 

 every node. A part of the labor of cultivating is the destruction of tliese 

 rootlets, by frequently lifting the vine from the ground, which violence breaks 

 them. 



Use. — The sweet potato in tropical and subtropical countries is an article 

 of food of vast importance. The rudest modes of cooking are roasting and 

 boiling, but it is also largely used for pies, custards, and other delicacies ; it is 

 also minced while raw, roasted with Maracaibo coffee, tlien ground and sold 

 for coffee. It is in common use in the southern and middle States as a 

 vegetable at breakfast and dinner. 



2. I. purga, Hayne. (Bindweed Jalap.) Stems twining, 12 feet long, many 

 from the same glol)ular, tuberous, fleshy root ; branched. Leaves alternate, 

 on stout foot-stalks, which are 4 to 5 inches long ; base cordate, lobes pointed, 

 narrowed at the apex, entire, smooth both sides, paler beneath, with con- 

 spicuous veins. Flowers in cymes, axillary, few-flowered ; peduncles long and 

 twisted •, pedicels bracted ; calyx, short, smooth, 5-parted ; corolla large, tubu- 

 lar, with flattened, spreading limb, contracted just where the limb begins to 

 flatten, dull pink ; stamens inserted in the tube near the base ; filaments flat- 

 tened, three longer than the other two, all extending beyond the mouth of 



Ipom(EA batatas (Sweet Potato). 



