ADDISONIA 49 
(Plate 65) 
BOMAREA EDULIS 
Edible Bomarea 
Native of the West Indies 
Family AMARYLLIDACEAE AMARYLLIS Family 
Alstroemeria edulis 'Tussac, Fl. Ant. 1: 109. 1808, 
Bomarea edulis Herb. Amaryllid. 111. 1837 
A tuber-bearing vine, usually climbing on bushes. The stem is 
up to twelve feet long, and is sometimes marked with purple. ‘The 
leaves, which are on short petioles, rarely over one quarter of an 
inch long, are alternate, lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, narrowed or 
aalnntant rounded at the base, acute at the apex; they are com- 
monly from three to five inches long and three quarters of an inch 
to an inch and a half wide, although sometimes broader. The 
intioteaserice is composed of three to a ere ree s up to six 
inches long, which form a terminal umbel, each branch bearing 
above the middle a two- or three-flowered siete leafy raceme. 
The flowers are bell-shaped, from an inch to an inch and a quarter 
long; the outer segments are eet eas obtuse, the outside 
of a oer ae rose or salmon pink, the inside yellow with reddish 
veins; the inner segments, of the same teeth as the outer, are 
lanceolate or linear Sealer and yellow spotted with dark purple. 
The stamens are somewhat shorter than the perianth. The style 
is short, but little ‘exceeding the ovary in length. ‘The fruit is a 
capsule about an inch in diameter. 
The plant from which this illustration was prepared was raised 
in the New York Botanical Garden from seed collected by the 
writer in a ravine, at an elevation of about 3,000 feet, near Marme- 
lade, Haiti, in August, 1903; in 1905 he also collected it in the pine- 
lands at the same place, at an elevation of about 2,500 feet. 
This interesting plant is also found in Santo Domingo, where it 
is reported that the tubers are prized by the natives as food and 
as an article of commerce, in Cuba, and in the Isle of Pines. It 
has also been collected in Mexico, but whether there native or an 
introduction is not indicated. 
The genus Bomarea, comprising over seventy-five species, is 
distributed from Mexico to Argentina, Chili and the West Indies, 
