NOTES ON THE DASHEEN AND CHAYOTE 
Uses of the Dasheen 
The portions of the plant suitable for diet are the corms with their 
lateral cormels and the aerial shoots. The former are not intended to 
replace the white or the sweet potato, nor the latter the asparagus, but rather 
to augment the comparatively small number of starchy vegetables now in 
use in our country. The underground parts, which are sold as ''dasheens" 
in some of our markets, contain about 50 percent more protein and 50 per- 
cent more starch and sugars than the potato tuber. The average of ten 
analyses of these portions made by the Department of Agriculture is as 
follows : 
T'ercent 
Solids 37-235 
Ash 1.3 
Starch 26.097 
Soluble sugar 1.75 
Ether extract 157 
Crude fiber 71 
Proteids..- 3.03 
Pentosans 1.24 
The corms and cormels are employed in the same manner and in quite 
as many ways as the white potato. When baked or boiled, the interior of a 
mature specimen is mealy, though firmer than the potato, because of its 
comparatively lower water content. Its flesh varies in color from cream 
to more frequently grayish-white or tinged with violet. Dasheens are best 
eaten directly after they have been baked or boiled. If kept standing, they 
gradually lose in palatability. 
An excellent flour has been made from dasheens. The corms and larger 
cormels are pared and either sliced or shredded and then dried and ground 
in a mill. This flour is mixed with that of wheat or rye in the proportion 
of one part of the former to three or four parts of the latter. 
The shoots are said to be more tender than those of asparagus. These 
are blanched, before being used, by forcing them from larger corms in the 
dark. 
The Chayote 
This vegetable, concerning which little has been recorded, is the fruit 
Chayota edulis Jacq., a native of tropical America. The plant (fig, 4) is a 
climbing, sparsely hairy vine, with perennial tuberous roots. Its stem 
bears alternate, cordate, palmately three-lobed or -angled leaves, which are 
membranous in texture. From points along the stem opposite the leaves 
2-5-branched tendrils arise, which assist the vine in climbing. The flowers 
are monoecious and axillary; the pistillate are solitary, while the staminate 
are borne in small clusters. The calyx tube is crateriform with a five- 
lobed limb. The greenish to cream-colored corolla is rotate, deeply five- 
parted, the segments being ovate-lanceolate. The filaments and styles 
