260 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



from weeds and is hilled up from time to time around the base of the plants. In 

 about eight or nine months the yams are ready for digging. They are dug and stored 

 by the natives, who pick them over from time to time, taking out any that show signs 

 of decay, so that the rest may not be affected by them. In the meantime the heads 

 are forming new eyes and the ground is prepared for the new crop. As the cultivation 

 of yams requires more labor and attention on the part of the natives than that of taro, 

 they are not so extensively planted as the latter. They are very nutritious; more so, 

 it is claimed, than the common potato. « They are eaten either baked or boiled, and in 

 many of the Pacific islands are combined with the rich creamy juice expressed from 

 the meat of the coconut to form dumplings of various kinds. In the days when 

 whaling vessels visited Guam in great numbers great quantities of yams and sweet 

 potatoes were supplied to them in exchange for codfish, salt meat, sugar, flour, and 

 textile fabrics. 



References: 

 Dioscorea alata L. Sp. PL 2: 1033. 1753. 

 Dioscorea bulbifera P. Br. (not L. ). Same as Dioscorea sativa. 

 Dioscorea fasciculata. Kidney yam. 



Local names. — Nika? (Guam); Soosni-aloo ( Beng. ) ; Bolot, Borot, Togui, Tugui, 

 Daliriga or Daliiigag (Philippines). 

 Tubers pendulous; stems annual, twining, round; prickles stipulary; leaves alter- 

 nate, round, cordate, 5-nerved. Cultivated to a considerable extent in the vicinity 

 of Calcutta, not only for food, but to make starch from the roots. 



Root consisting of many tubers, about the size and shape of a pullet's egg, connected 

 by slender filaments to the base of the stems, covered with a pretty smooth, light- 

 colored, thin integument; internally they are white; stems several, about as thick as 

 a pack thread, twining, round, smooth, except here and there a small prickle, and 

 always two at the insertion of each leaf; these I call the stipules. Leaves alternate, 

 long-petioled, round-cordate, entire, pointed, from 3 to 7-nerved, venose, slightly 

 villous. I have not met with the flowers of either sex.'' 



To this species is assigned, in the last edition of the Flora de Filipinas, Padre Blan- 

 co's earlier D. tugui, called "togui" by the Filipinos, which in the first edition he 

 describes as follows: c 



Male. Root with many tubers; stem climbing, somewhat angled, hairy and 

 prickly; leaves alternate, broadly cordate, abruptly acuminate, concave, somewhat 

 hairy beneath, and with 7 prominent nerves; petioles very long, minutely and 

 sparsely prickly; flowers in axillary spikes; 2-bracteolate, unisexual; perianth 6-cleft, 

 in 2 series, the 3 inner divisions narrower; the 3 outer ones fleshy and hairy without; 

 corolla absent; stamens 6, of equal length; pistillode prominently 3-lobed. In some 

 plants 3 bifid styles are seen; fruit not observed. 



These plants, which are cultivated, are climbers, on which account the Indians 

 place stakes so that they may climb upon them. Their root, w T hich is the part most 

 valued in them, forms many tubers, some of w T hich reach 5 in. or more in thickness. 

 This root is not poisonous, nor needs any anterior preparation to be eaten boiled or 

 fried in olive oil or lard. The flavor is very good, and on that account it is more 

 esteemed than the sweet potato. Blooms in May and June. 

 References: 

 Dioscorea fasciculata Roxb. Fl. Ind. 3: 801. 1832. 

 Dioscorea fasciculata lutescens. Yellow yam. 



Local names. — Nika (Guam); Toguing polo (Philippines). 



This variety has the root as in the preceding species, only it differs in the color, 

 which inclines to yellow. Stem with a greater number of prickles; leaves mostly 

 heart-shaped, the new ones approaching the shape of a kidney, full of wool, espe- 

 cially beneath; petioles very long and with 2 prickles at the base. Used like the 

 preceding, but the root not so savory; found everywhere. d 



a Mcholls, Tropical Agriculture, p. 284, 1897. 

 6 Roxburgh, Flora Indica, vol. 3, p. 801, 1832. 

 c Flora de Filipinas, p. 800, 1837. " 

 <* Blanco, Flora de Filipinas, ed. 1, p. 801, 1837. 



