DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 261 



One variety of nika cultivated in Guam very closely corresponds with this descrip- 

 tion. The species is very close to D. papuana of Warburg. Hooker « was unable to 

 identify any of the Indian yams examined by him with D. fasciculata Roxb. 

 References : 

 Dioscorea fasciculata lutescens Fernandez- Villar, Blanco Fl. Philipp. 4: Nov. 

 App. 280. 1880. 



Dioscorea glabra. Chinese yam. 



Local names. — Dago (Guam). 



Quite glabrous. Stems stout, somewhat flattened; leaves opposite, long-petioled, 

 extremely variable, 7.5 to 20 cm. long by 2.5 to 11 cm. broad, caudate-acuminate, 

 orbicular, ovate-oblong, or hastate, strongly 7 to 9-nerved and reticulate, the youngest 

 acute at the base, the older truncate or deeply cordate, the lobes sometimes 2.5 cm. 

 long, incurved and overlapping, subglaucous beneath ; margins not thickened or carti- 

 laginous; petiole 2.5 to 8 cm. long; male spikes 2.5 cm. long, rarely longer, spreading; 

 flowers scattered, rather large, globosely 8-lobed, often coarsely dotted ; sepals ovate- 

 oblong, petals cuneately obovate; pistillode minute; capsule 3.7 cm. in diameter, 

 very variable in shape, subquadrate, broadly obcuneate or obcordate, retuse at the 

 tip and base, valves very thin; seeds irregularly orbicular. 



A plant occurring in the Bismarck Archipelago and Kaiser Wilhelmsland, near the 

 coast of New Guinea, the Philippine Islands, and the Malay Peninsula. It is probable 

 that some of the varieties of the dago of Guam should be referred to this species. 

 References: 

 Dioscorea glabra Roxb. Fl. Ind. 3: 804. 1832. 



Dioscorea papuana. Papuan yam. 



Local names. — Nika ? (Guam). 

 The following is a translation of Warburg's description and discussion of this 

 species: 



Stems climbing, terete, finely ferruginous-villous, sparsely prickly, the prickles 

 commonly erect, small; leaves long-petioled (the petiole angled, pubescent), broadly 

 cordate, with the sinus at the base deep and very broad, the apex shortly acuminate, 

 above smooth, below lighter-colored, sparsely whitish-hairy, 7 to 11-costate, with the 

 basal costae commonly bifid or trifid; male racemes simple, axillary, many-flowered, 

 as long as the leaf or longer, the peduncle pubescent, the bracts small, acutely ovate, 

 hairy; flowers solitary, subsessile, campanulate, hairy without, the lobes 6, subequal, 

 obtusely ovate, longer than tube; stamens 6, glabrous, shorter than the divisions of 

 the perianth, the filaments attached to the base of the divisions, the anthers all 

 fertile, introrse; rudiment of the style (pistillode) smooth, short, irregularly sub- 

 pyramidal. 



The petioles are 5 to 6 cm. long, the leaves themselves 7 to ,8 cm. long and 9 to 

 10 cm. broad. The prickles differ very much in length. They are sometimes trian- 

 gular and sometimes slender; at the base of the leaf there are prickles almost twice 

 as long, somewhat curved. The male inflorescences vary between 10 and 40 cm., 

 but are never branched; the bracts are 1.5 mm., the perianth nearly 3 mm. long, the 

 style scarcely perceptible. 



This hitherto overlooked species stands very near to D. aculeata L., but differs 

 above all in the simple male inflorescences and the sessile blossoms; also, the broad, 

 relatively not deep sinus of the base of the leaf is noteworthy. 



The plant grows wild on Little Key. I also found sterile branches evidently of 

 the same species in Ceram-Laut and Hatzfeldhafen. 



This is probably the species of yam which is chiefly cultivated there by the natives, 

 and which, together with Colocasia antiquorum [Caladium colocasia~\, even to the pres- 

 ent day represents the most important cultivated plant of Papuasia. As I held the 

 above plant to be D. aculeata, I unfortunately did not take care to procure for myself 

 female flowers and fruit; nor do I remember to have seen the plant in bloom, as the 

 yam planting of the year had just begun; it is of great importance, in the future, to 



.« Flora Brit. Ind., vol. 6, p. 296, 1894. 



