47 
tside ta Gardens the irena on the hills have come: thro 
E ecd e streets and roads have beet i 
hoe "Most a tie the roads Ee streets were Mocked w via allen 
trees &nd broken limbs." 
* Between September lOth. rg ndm 6th. we: seg to prepare for 
five typhoons which approached the Colony, but as the centres passed.: 
some distance south we had only strong eee” for four of them." 
Meadow Pinme: Thistle (C nicus - pratensis, Willd) — The plant 
known as the M eadow Plume-Thistle, Cnicus pratensis, Wie 
arduus sis, Huds.) is a perennial, mi ma local in ch er, 
found ra my cm omm in the southern counties of England. En is 
widely ved on the continent. The stems are downy and mostly 
single-flowered. The leaves are green above, cottony beneath, but 
not ae din The flowers are dark purple with the pappus dirty 
certain part r go 
pastures almost worthless. There is no use to which the plant could 
be applied, and it is evident that nothing can be done except to get rid 
of it by persistent weeding before the plants flower each year. 
Mr. W. Lane to ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 
Curry Rivel, voeem gat 
Jul 5 1894. 
t this post I send ài a plant 
glad to know. Within the ar w years it fas — and overrun 
a large tract of land in West Sedgmoor which formerly produced 
good pasture, but which is now in consequence worthless or nearly so 
orgrass-growing purposes. There is, I suppose 7 no COEM e 
in the plant or any extract. which " t be 
is pronounced something; like * Tibi love" but although 1 I 
am u 
: 
nam 
have — to get at tho e origin d 
m, m, &e. 
The Directo (Signed) W. Lana. 
Royal urinis; Kew. : 
am Beans.—Information respecting the Yam bean (Pachyrhizus 
vec Apis Spreng.) was given in the Kew Bulletin, 1889, pp. 17 and 62 
(with plate). An account of the Parii aoe short-podded Yam bean 
(Pachy itn angulatus, Rich.) w n in the Kew Bulletin, 1889, 
p. 121 (with plate). Both these yiii s are of interest. The roots of 
the former “ afford a plentiful supply of very wholesome food" ; while, 
according to Dr. Denn * the pods are a very useful vegetable." Of 
the short-podded Yam bean a starch is made from the tubers, or they 
are eaten when young = in the case of P. tuberosus. The young pods, 
however, cannot be used as a vegetable, as they are -€ and cause 
irritation. The following analysis of tubers and seed o ats rni 
has recently been published in the Report of arie icultural Work a 
