HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 203 



suggest that all owners of ships trading with Shanghae, or other northern 

 Chinese ports, should direct their captains to bring home a quantity of the 

 Yams exposed for sale in the markets. We know that there are many 

 varieties, possibly belonging to more species than one, and it is deserving 

 of inquiry whether one may not suit the climate of Europe better than 

 another. 



The species described by M. Decaisne is called by him Dioscorea Batatas, 

 or Igname-Batate, and is described as having much the appearance of the 

 common Tamus. Its stems are annual, but its roots, or more properly 

 speaking rhizomes, are perennial, and directed downwards perpendicularly, 

 sometimes to the depth of a yard, if the soil is loose enough to admit them. 

 The haulm is about as thick as a goose quill, cylindrical, turning from right 

 to left, and about two yards long, violet, with small whitish specks. When 

 left to themselves the stems lie flat on the ground, and strike root very 

 readily. The leaves are opposite, heart-shaped, and triangular, upon pur- 

 ple stalks. The "roots" vary in length and thickness with the soil in 

 which they grow. They may usually be compared to clubs, the blunt end 

 of which is as big as the fist, but which tapers downwards till it is no bigger 

 than the finger. Their skin resembles in color the well-known beverage 

 coffee and milk, and is covered with numerous fibrous rootlets. Under the 

 skin is a white, opaline, very friable, slightly milky cellular mass, filled with 

 flour, which softens and dries in cooking, till it acquires the taste and qual- 

 ity of a potato, for which it might be mistaken. Each plant may produce 

 several of these roots, though in general there are only two or three. 



M. Decaisne and his friends who have tasted this Yam think that no 

 serious objection will be taken to the employment of it as food. The only 

 question is whether a root which buries itself so deep in the ground will suit 

 the habits of cultivators. It is not, however, easy to understand why, in 

 Europe, the trifling mechanical difficulty of getting up such roots should be 

 a hindrance, when the Chinese with their rude tools find the operation easy 

 enough. In that country the Yam is grown on a great scale. M. Montigny, 

 who sent it to France from Shanghae, calls it /Sain-In, and says it is highly 

 productive, the country people consuming it as largely as the Potato in Eu- 

 rope. For propagation the smallest roots are set apart and pitted, to keep 

 them from frost. In the spring the roots are taken out and planted in fur- 

 rows pretty near each other in well prepared ground. They soon sprout 

 and form prostrate stems, which are made into cuttings as soon as as they 

 are 6 feet long. As soon as the cuttings are ready a field is worked into 

 ridges, along each of which is formed a small furrow, in which the pieces 



