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TAROS AND YAUTIAS | 7 
full Chinese name, Ong-hwa yii, is translated “red flowery taro.” 
“Red ” refers to the reddish color of the fresh skin of the corms and 
tubers and “ flowery” to the fact that the plants flower rather com- 
monly. Most taros in China are understood to flower rarely or not 
at all. So far, the corms and tubers have been found free from the 
acridity common to the other edible varieties of Colocasia antiquo- 
rum tested. When cooked they are mealy, somewhat grayish or 
violet in color, and of good flavor, much resembling the Trinidad 
dasheen. In other respects the Ong-hwa variety is practically identi- 
cal with the other forms of C. antiquorum previously mentioned. 
Fic. 3.—Top view of a small corm of the Ong-hwa taro (S. P. I. No. 45777), intro- 
duced from China. Although practically identical in appearance with the southern 
blue tanyah and the Egyptian culecas and belonging to the same species (Colocasia 
antiquorum Schott), the Ong-hwa taro is much superior to those yarieties in 
quality. (P28148FS.) 
It deserves trial especially by persons who are accustomed to the use 
of the blue tanyah of our southeastern coast. A small corm of the 
Ong-hwa taro is shown in Figure 3. 
Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott.? 
Under the name of Colocasia esculenta are considered here varie- 
ties from three different groups of taros, distinct from any of the 
7In their Meletemata Botanica, vol. 1, p. 18, 1832, Schott and Endlicher tentatively 
recognized Arum esculentum of Linnzus as a good species under the name used here, but 
in 1856 (Synopsis Aroidearum, p. 40) Schott reduced it to varietal rank. The writer 
believes that this reduction to a variety was an error resulting from inadequate acquaint- 
ance with the growing plants, and he therefore follows the Linnzan distinction. There 
is great variability, however, in the varieties which the writer includes in Colocasia 
EEN and it is possible that further studies will show more than one species to be 
involved. 
