40 



OKA OF PERU. 



OXALIS CRENATA, Jacq. 



Kew Gardens to Public Gardens, Jamaica. 



Dear Sir, 



I am sending you a few tubers of Oxalis crenata, the Oka" of the 

 Peruvians, which is worth a trial as a vegetable for table. The tubers 

 should be planted like the potato. New tubers are formed at the end 

 of the season and under favourable conditions they are 3 inches long 

 and weigh 2 ounces. "When lifted, they should be exposed to sunlight 

 for two or three days. To cook them boil for 20 minutes in water 

 containing a pinch of carbonate of soda ; they change to a bright am- 

 ber colour, and if eaten with pepper and salt they are palatable and of 

 pleasant flavour. 



Yours faithfully, 



W. T. Thistleton-Dyek. 



The Treasury of Botany states that it is largely cultivated about 

 Lima for its very acid leafstalks. 



The following seeds have also been received from Kew : — 



Heterospathe elata, Scheff (a palm from Amboina). 



Pitcairnia ferruginea, Ruiz & Pav., one of the Bromeliaceae or wild 

 Pines. The flowering scape is 5 or 6 feet long, and fliowers 5 inches 

 long, greenish-white. It is a native of Peru. 



COCCID^, OR SCALE INSECTS.— XII. 



By T. D. A. CocKERELL, Entomologist of the New Mexico 



Agricultural Experiment Station. 



Genus Asjndiotus. (Continued). 



(75.) Aspidiotus articulatus. — Morgan. (The West Indian Eed 

 Scale). 



Diagnosis. — A small flat scale, about the size of a pin's head, deep 

 orange in the middle and whitish round the sides, circular in out- 

 line. On lifting up the scale with the point of a pin or knife, the 

 orange- coloured insect is seen beneath, and with a hand lens it is 

 easily observed to be deeply constricted between the thorax and 

 the abdomen. 



Distribution. — Very abundant in Jamaica. Also found in Nevis. 

 Barbados, Demerara, Trinidad, Mexico, and Lagos, W. Africa, 

 It is quite possible that it is really a native of Africa, which has 

 been introduced into the West Indies. Maskell has described a 

 variety {A articulatus var. celastri) from the Cape of Grood Hope. 



Food-plants. — It is abundant on palms, but also infects many other 

 plants, including grape-vine, lime, orange. Pancratium (or 



Hymenocallis) caribaeum, lignum-vitse, olive, Taberiicemontaita 

 coronaria, violet, rose, star-apple, guava, Lawsonia alba, pome- 

 granate, Anacardium occidentale, mango, akee, genip, Apeiba, 

 Mibiscus, Bignonia magnijlca, Persea, &c. 



