691 



Vernac. names.— DoysL, Doyar bisa, Tuwon biri (Hausa 

 Ddziel); Ewuru-esi (Lagos, J/ac^regror, Dawodu); Acorn (West 

 Indies, Prain db Burkill) ; Acorn (Jamaica, Harris) ; Akam (West 

 Africa— S. Nigeria, &c. Burkill) ; Abana orfia (Aguku, S. Nigeria, 

 yAomas). —Otaheite Potato, Danda Yam (Tobago, Broadway). 

 Otaheite Potato— sent from Kew to Trinidad about 1894 — is 

 known in the West Indies as " Potato Yam " from the fact of 

 its bearing large quantities of bulbils on the stem and in Grenada 

 as " Cut and throw away " (Hart, Bull. Misc. Inf. Roy. Bot. Gdns. 



Trinidad, ii. 1896, p. 210). 



Lagos (MacGregor, Dawodu, Herb. Kew); Oban (Talbot, 

 Herb. Kew) ; Jeba— on the Kworra (Niger)— (Barter, Herb. Kew), 

 «tc. in Nigeria; Krebidje, Haut Oubangui (ChevaUer, Herb. 



Kew) 



naturalised in the West 



Indies (Harris). The wild plant is common in India and Burma 

 <Prain, Burldll, Watt) and across the Pacific, where also the 

 cultivated forms are commonly grown; in Ceylon, Japan and 

 Austraha (Kew Bull. 1912, p. 407). 



Rootstock variable, usually large under cultivation. In 

 Jamaica the tubers of " Acorn " are said to be rarely eaten, but 

 a good starch is obtained from them (Harris, Bull. Dept. Agric. 

 Jamaica, Jan. 1906, p. 5; Hart, I.e.). The underground tubers 

 of the wild plant are stated to be insipid and often hardly edible, 

 unless repeatedly boiled and washed in running water between each 

 fcoihng; though in times of scarcity and famine they are in 

 India an important article of food (Watt, Comm. Prod. India, 

 p. 493). Fruits [bulbils] used for boils, fever, etc., Lagos 



<MacG 



145, Herb. Kew); bulbils edible, 



Mozambique (Johnson, No. 84, 1907, Herb. Kew); in Hausaland 



(Dalziel, Hausa Bot. Voc. p. 26— " Doyar bisa ") ; grown in 



Yola (Shaw, N. Nig. Gaz. Feb. 28th, 1910, p. 32—" Doyanbissa "). 



The cHmbing stems are not winged as in D. alafa ; but unUke 



this species aerial tubers are borne. 



Ref.~" On the Origin, Development and Morphological 



Lin 



Annals 



501. 



cayeuensis, Lamk. Encyl. m 



Afr. VII. p. 148, excl. minutiil 



111 . — Annals 



xooi^—D. prehensilis); ChevaUer, Bull. Soc. Bot. France, lix. 

 1912, p. 226, tt. 3 & 3 bis. 



Vernac. names. — Kama (Unyoro, Dawe) ; Isu awun (S. Nigeria, 

 Foster); Efuru, Esinmmrin (S. Nigeria, Burkill). Negro Yam, 

 Lucea Yam (Jamaica, Harris, specimen from Hope Bot. Dept. 

 Herb. Kew), Guinea Yam, White Yam, White or Eight Months 



<jruinea 



Kew) 



Herb. Kew); Oban (Talbot, No. 723, 

 Dalziel. No. 225, 1909, Herb. Kew); 



Abinsi & vicinity, N. Nigeria (Dalziel, No. 670, Herb. Kew) 

 and S. Nigeria (Foster, No. 329, 1907, Herb. Kew); in Sierr 



