8o 



THE ECONOMIC PLANTi> OF JAPAN. 



sisting of a heavy piece of timber some seven or eight 

 feet long, which is held in an upright position in the bowl 

 by a framework. To lift these pestles, a series of wooden 

 sprockets, or arms, are inserted in a spiral around the 

 shaft, in such a manner that when the latter is turned 

 one after another of these arms pushes against a shoulder 

 on the pestle, which is lifted a foot or more and then 

 drops into the bowl, crushing by its weight whatever it 

 may contain. 

 The fine gray 

 kanniyaku flour 

 which results 

 from this proc- 

 ess is cooked in 

 many ways. 



Cycas revol- 

 u T A , Thunb. ; 

 Jap., Sotetsti. 

 One of the palms 

 from which sago 

 is obtained. It 

 beingwell-known 

 as an ornamental 

 plant, needs n o 

 description here. 

 It grows in abun- 

 dance on the 

 islands of the ex- 

 treme south, es 

 pecially on the 

 Bouin Islands, 

 whence large 

 numbers are ex 

 ported to Eu 

 rope. It is £ 

 slow grower 

 hence its valui 

 as a source o 

 sago is but sligh 

 from the cultiva- 

 tor's standpoint 

 The stem attain: 

 a height of eigh 

 to ten feet, and 

 o I d specimens 

 usually have 

 several or many 

 trunks from the 

 same root, most 

 of them being 



more or less inclined. It stands the winter in Tokio 

 with a slight protection of straw. The sago is obtained 

 from the trunk by first felling and paring it and cutting 

 the interior in pieces, which are then pounded in a 

 trough with water, the fiber floating away afid the starch 

 settling to the bottom. 



Daucus CAROTA.L. ; Jap.,iVz«7V«. (The Carrot.) Com. 

 monly cultivated. There are but few native varieties, 

 and none of them very good. The most common one is 



DiOSCOREA JaPONICA TsUKU.NE-IMO. 



a large pale red root which often grows two feet long, 

 called Kintoki-ninjiii. It lacks sweetness and flavor 

 compared with our improved varieties, and for that rea- 

 son could not compete with them here. Foreign varieties 

 have been introduced and are grown in the neighborhood 

 of the foreign settlements. Carrots are quite commonly 

 used in Japanese cooking, and can be found in the 

 vegetable stalls during the greater part of the year. 



DiOSCOREA 

 J A P O N I C A , 



Thunb. {D.op- 

 po sitifolia, 

 Thunb.); Jap., 

 Yania - no -imo, 

 Jinen-jo. (The 

 Yam.) This 

 species grows 

 wild in abund- 

 ance in hedge- 

 rows and waste 

 places all over 

 Japan. It has 

 a slender volu- 

 ble vine, which 

 climbs to a 

 height of ten to 

 twelve feet. In 

 the axils of the 

 leaves of some 

 of the vines are 

 small oblong 

 bulblets. The 

 pistillate flow- 

 ers are small, white, in ra- 

 cemes near the top of the 

 vine, followed by triangular 

 winged capsules. The root 

 is three to four feet long, 

 often branched, one to two 

 inches in diameter, fleshy, 

 brittle and palatable. The 

 illustration (page 82) shows 

 a young root of this kind 

 dug from a hedge-row. In 

 the fall these roots are eager- 

 ly sought by poor people. 

 They are either boiled 

 and eaten after the manner 

 of potatoes, or grated and 

 stirred with shoyu and 

 water into a pasty mass called lororo. 



A cultivated variety is called Naga-imo (long potato). 

 It has somewhat larger leaves than the species, and the 

 root is larger and more regular in form. I have repeat- 

 edly seen specimens upwards of four feet long and be- 

 tween three and four inches in diameter. To prevent 

 breaking in handling, each root is tied to a stick before 

 it is marketed. Another variety is the Tsukune-into , 

 which has a knotty, bulbous root with a fancied resem- 



