AMERICAN VARIETIES OF SWEET POTATOES. 7 
for a deep purple stain at the base of the blade and the summit of the petiole; 
the latter otherwise green, hairy, or nearly smooth. Roots white, smooth, 
without veins or ribs, varying from fusiform i<> cylindrical in shape, of me- 
dium to large size; llesli white, hut dull or grayish white or light yellow when 
baked, only slightly sweet, quite dry and mealy, and linn in texture. Flavor 
not pronounced. 
The Ticotea group contains only two varieties, Tieotea and Koali, and is not 
important. 
BELMONT GROUP. 
Vines medium to long, 4 to 12 feet, or very short, 1 to 3| feet; stems slender 
or thick and coarse, green, hairy, or smooth to nearly smooth; leaves deeply 
5 to 7 lobed, upper surface of blade hairy to nearly smooth, lower surface 
smooth or slightly hairy along the veins, green in color; petiole also green, 
hairy, or smooth. Roots light salmon, yellow tinged with salmon, russet yel- 
low, or rose to purple; veins often prominent and always lighter in color than 
the rest of the Surface ; the roots usually fusiform, smooth except for the 
veins, of average size; medium to late in season; flesh white, yellow, light 
salmon to dark salmon in color, but light yellow, dark yellow, or yellow tinged 
svith salmon when baked, sweet to very sweet, and so moist that sirup can be 
squeezed out with slight pressure; flavor somewhat squashlike; texture soft 
or at times rather coarse and stringy. 
The Belmont group may be divided into two sections, as follows ; 
Belmont section : Vines long and creeping. 
Bunch section : Vines very short and bushy. 
The stems of the varieties of the Belmont section are long and slender, from 
to 12 feet in length ; or medium in length, 4 to 8 feet, with internodes 2 to 
4 Inches long. The leaves are rather small, with narrow T lobes, except that 
those of the Eclipse Sugar "yam" 1 and Vineless Pumpkin "yam" are larger, 
with broad ovoid lobes. 
The following varieties belong to the Belmont section : 
(1) Belmont. (This variety or very slight variations of it is known 
under the names Georgia and Dunton's Improved.) 
(2) Eclipse Sugar "yam." 
(3) Vineless Pumpkin "yam." (PI. IV, figs. 1 and 2.) 
(4) Old Time "yam." 
(5) Yellow "yam." 
(6) White Sealy, 
The stems of the Bunch section are thick and coarse and from 1 to 3^ feet 
long, with internodes one-third to one-half an inch long, the leaves being 
greatly crowded in consequence, and it follows that the total leaf surface of a 
Bunch vine IS inches long is nearly or quite equal to that of a Belmont vine 11 
to 12 feet in length. The leaves resemble those of the Eclipse variety in being 
large, with broad ovoid lobes. 
The following varieties belong to the Bunch section : 
(1 ) Gros Grandia. 
(2) Bunch Candy "yam." (Also called Bunch "yam," Vineless, Prolific, 
and Gold Coin.) (PI. IV, fig. 3.) 
1 The term " yam " used in this key to designate certain varieties of sweet potatoes is 
used because it is a varietal designation and not because it refers to a yam. The term 
• yam " when applied to sweet potatoes is a misnomer, as the true yams belong to an 
entirely different genus, Dioscorea. Yams are grown to a limited extent only in the more 
southerly portions of the South, principally Florida, and are of little commercial im- 
portance. 
