374 



EOOT CEOPS, 



in height, very porous ; there are as many as six or eight cells 

 running the whole length of the root. It is very difficult to 

 describe the ilavor. It is sligbtly sweet and glutinous, and is 

 generally boiled with wild fowl, but is occasionally roasted. 



In his exploring expedition into the interior of Guiana, in the 

 region of the Upper Essequibo, Sir E. Schomburgk notices the 

 discovery of a variety of Leguminosse, whose tubers grow to an 

 enormous size, fully equal to the largest yam. These roots were 

 not, at the time he was there, in full perfection, but their taste was 

 somewhat between the yam and the sweet potato. The Tariuna 

 Indians called them Cuyupa. The roots are considered fit for use 

 when the herb above ground dies. Sir Eobert brought a few of 

 the seeds of the plant with him on his return to Demerara. 



Two interesting productions have been recently introduced into 

 the Jar din des Plantes, at Paris, from the Ecuador, by M. Bourcier, 

 formerly Consul- General of Erance in that country. One is the 

 r^d and yellow ocas, which is of the form of a long potato, and 

 has the taste of a chesnut ; the other is the milloco, which has the 

 taste and form of our best potatoes. These two roots, which are 

 found in great abundance in the neighbourhood of Quito, grow 

 readily in the poorest land. The oca is cultivated in the fields of 

 Mexico, but only succeeds in the warmer districts. Erom the 

 bulbous roots of the cacomite, a species of Tigridia, a good flour 

 is also prepared there. 



Stevenson (" Travels in South America," vol. ii., p. 55) says, 

 a root caUed the oca is cultivated in several of the colder provinces 

 of Peru. "This plant," he states, "is of a moderate size, in ap- 

 pearance somewhat like the acetous trefoil ; the roots yellow, 

 each about five or six inches long, and two in circumference. They 

 have many eyes, and the roots, several of which are }' ielded by one 

 plant, are somewhat curved. When boiled it is much sweeter 

 than the camote or batata ; indeed it appears to contain more sac- 

 charine matter than any root I ever tasted ; if eaten raw it is very 

 much like the chesnut. The roots may be kept for many months 

 in a dry place. The transplanting of the oca (he adds) to Eng- 

 land, where I am persuaded it would prosper, would add another 

 agreeable and useful esculent to our tables." 



The Brussels paper, U Emancipation, mentions that a root has 

 been discovered by the Director of the Museum of Industry, in 

 that place, destined to take the place of the potato. It is the 

 Lathyrus tulerosus, called by the peasants the earth mouse, on ac- 

 count of its form, and the earth chesnut on account of its taste. 

 This plant exists only in some localities of Lorraine and Burgundy. 

 The Lathyrus has never been cultivated, and it is thought that it 

 will attain, with cultivation, the size of the potato. The Erench 

 peasants have a prejudice against cultivating it, because they say 

 it walks under ground, and leaves the place it is planted in to go 

 into the neighbouring field. The fact is, that it grows in a 

 chaplet, of which the bulbs are arranged along a root runniug 

 horizontally, of which the two extremities are very rarely found. 



