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XC. Observations on, and Account of, the Tubers of the 

 Lathyms Tuberosus, with Instructions for the Cultivation of 

 the Plant in a Garden. By Mr. James Dickson, F. L. S. 

 SfC. Vice-President. 



Read May 6, 1817. 

 The tubers, which have been exhibited and distributed at 

 several of our Meetings, during the late winter, are the pro- 

 duce of a plant called by Linnaeus, Lathyms Tuberosus, a 

 native of Germany, France, Italy, and Holland, in which 

 last country it has long been cultivated in the gardens, for 

 the sake of the tubers produced by its roots, which are there 

 used in the desert. In Dutch it is called Aard-aker (earth 

 nut), or Muizen met staarten (mice with tails), the tubers with 

 the fibres attached to one of their extremities (when half 

 concealed in a napkin, on which they are usually served up 

 at table) bearing a strong resemblance to the common mouse. 

 Gerrard called them Terras Glandes, or Pease Earth nuts* 

 Though the plant had been long under my charge, in the 

 garden at the British Museum, I was ignorant of the use of 

 its roots, till a person accidentally calling on me, and enquir- 

 ing anxiously " for the little black roots which the Dutch call 

 mice, and which grow on a plant like a pea," led to the dis- 

 covery ; I subsequently imported roots, and they have been 

 many years in my gardens at Croydon, as well as in that of 

 Sir Joseph Banks at Spring Grove, to whom I communi- 

 cated them. 



The plant itself has been figured in Curtis' s Botanical 



* Gerard's Herbal, page 1237- 



