29 BULLETIN 1247, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
During the building of the Panama Canal large quantities were 
consumed by the Americans stationed in that vicinity. 
The plant does best in rich and somewhat clayey loam. It grows 
from 18 to 30 inches high (Pl. XI, fig. 1). Tubers are planted in 
the spring, 14 or 2 by 3 feet apart, and the crop of corms and tubers 
is dug in the fall. The tubers are mostly very small and are 
loosely attached to the corm or to other tubers. They and the corms 
are practically nonacrid, have yellowish flesh, and are edible when 
cooked, but on account of their small size (Pl. XI, fig. 2) they are 
seldom eaten. 
Fic. 16.—Characteristic hastate leaves of belembe, or Indian kale. (Much reduced. ) 
When properly prepared, these leaves make one cf the richest flavored and tender- 
est of greens. (VPS8814FS.) 
SUMMARY. 
The taros and yautias, root crops belonging to the genera Colo- 
casia and Xanthosoma, respectively, are the principal groups of the 
edible or economic aroids. Several species of each genus are of con- 
siderable importance as food plants in various parts of the Tropics 
and Subtropics, and certain varieties of some of these have proved 
adapted for cultivation as annual crops in the southern United 
States. The two “tanyahs” of the southeastern coast regions and 
the dasheen are varieties of taro. 
As food, the corms and tubers of the taros and yautias are com- 
parable with the potato, though on account of being drier most of the 
