ee: sah 
- grown exclusively for 
TAROS AND YAUTIAS 744 | 
margin of the blade and a secondary vein about one-sixteenth inch 
from the margin. The petiole is green throughout with a narrow 
ink line on the margin of the sinus wing. The Nut eddo occasion- 
ally flowers in Florida. A flower stalk is shown in Plate III, Fig- 
ure 3. The pistillate flow- 
ers are greenish, the sterile 
staminate (those com- 
pressed by the collar of the 
tube of the spathe) pink, 
and the fertile staminate 
ones ivory white. 
Xanthosoma brasiliense (Desf.) Engl. 
BELEMBE, S. PP. I. NO. 15412. 
Belembe** is one of the 
Porto Rican names of this 
species of yautia, which is 
greens. In other parts of 
tropical America it is 
known by different names, 
as, for example, “ Indian 
kale.” Like the dasheen and 
most other aroids belembe 
leaves (fig. 16) are some- 
what acrid in the raw state, 
and in being prepared for 
the table they must either be 
cooked with fat meat or be 
parboiled for 6 or 8 minutes 
with a little baking soda in 
the water. They cook 
quickly, and a total period 
of 12 minutes is usually sufli- 
cient. When parboiled with 
soda the second boiling is in 
plain salted water. Except 
when cooked with meat, a 
little butter is best used with 
other seasoning when the 
greens are served. 
The particular value of Fic. 15.—Hdible corm of a yellow yautia. (Nat- 
elembeches in the fact that ja ions the lateeal Yoters are too gmail for 
it will furnish gtests for feeed: tend danatiy “ot Ceecnent acute: Cone 
home use in the South specimen shown (somewhat shriveled) was 
throughout the hot summer  aenee sworn (eélisrs) oe mame 
and early fall months, when 
vegetables for this purpose are scarce or lacking. The greens have 
a rich but delicate flavor seldom found in-similar dishes. Belembe 
can doubtless be marketed locally when it becomes better known. 
13 Used by O. W. Barrett in Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin 164, previously men- 
tioned, p. 24. In a letter of more recent date, Mr. Barrett states that “belembe” is an 
Arawak word. 
