= . received from Mr. J. H. Hart, F F.L.S., Superintendent of the Botanical 
oe very useful vegetable. He wrote : * January 30, , 1888:— 
17 
LXXIX.—YAM BEAN. 
(Pachyrhizus tuberosus, Sprengel.) 
= the Kew Bulletin for August 1887 information was give n respect- : 
ing the introduction of ceriai n Newt Indian dnt to the East 
Indies. The subjects then ected n re the NEM to (Cyphon vandra 
betacea) ; the Chocho ( e wid eiu he Arracacha (Arracacia 
esculenta), and the Cherimoyer (Anona Cherim noli 
ough not indigenous to the West Indies, the subject of the pre- 
sent notice has been for a 2 long period cultivat Its earlie 
i quce Diet. II .p. 296). 
It is figur red by Plumier, Plant. Amer., pl. 220; and also by Des- 
courtilz, Flore des Antilles (1839), viii. "> 127, pl. 554, who states 
per it was grown in x artinique, and believed to have been brought - 
m the Spanish Main by the Caribs. It was transferred from the - 
genus Dolichos to Pachyrhizus by Sprengel (Systema Vegetabilium, | 
ol. iv., part Lg pe By modern writers it appears to have been - 
included under Pach, yrhizus angulatus D.C. (Dolichos bulbosus, — 
— Lamarck), from which, however, it differs by the leaves being rounded - 
not dentate; by the white, not violet flowers; by the much larger . 
pods; and possibly also by the seeds, which are kidney-shaped, white; 
black, or mottled. 128 
A good figure of Pach, yrs angulatus, to which reference may be: > 
made for purposes of comparison, appears in the Flora Brasiliensis, 
Vol. XV., pt. i, pl. 53 ; there is also a figure i in Finmicr egt, Anes t 
l. 222. 
: In February 1886, Dr. Ernst, of Caracas, wo respecting some 
specimens he was sending to Kew, as follows :—-“ Is there 
X 
a 
ic. , anc er 
e Genera Plan Tq e ay there are but t o species of Pachyr- 
 hizus (angulati aut pe. us). Is it per ris aps their opinion tha 
* D. tube is only a “ariet of kin, e angulatus? I send. 
Sit E bodar uem , fruit, a eeds o lerida pl at The ro t is 
. . * edible ; Am is is certainly ru Weddell am. Sci. Nat. zii 
. * des r th ti f th ses 
« D, tuberosus. I have only that of Lamarck.” - 
In April 1887 seeds, under the name of. Dolichos D Sg wer 
* "Gardens at Trinidad. These were distributed to the Botanic Gardens 
C wot only were the tuberous-like roots edible, but that the ie T 
— * tuber "These gr well b acd dic re quite new to 
a Ceylon, “the rA T gery quite unknown here, and I fancy litth 
Ph Bows in India. The young pods, served like French 
é > ‘admirable vegetable, ess ST sweet; and the Dee arrowro 
E * like tubercles on. the roots are. also “good y when cook t 
; B. 56774, ; 
