4 BULLETIN 1247, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
(Pl. I, fig. 1, and Pl. III, fig. 1). The minute pistillate flowers are 
on the lower part of the spadix and inclosed by the green tubular 
portion of the spathe. Above the pistillate area of the spadix the 
staminate flowers are borne, and beyond these is a sterile appendage 
of a length varying with the species and sometimes with the variety. 
The staminate and sterile parts of the spadix are inclosed by the 
yellowish limb or upper portion of the spathe; the limb is connected 
with the tube by a close-fitting collar, which effectually separates the 
pistillate from the staminate flowers. When the pistillate flowers 
are mature (which is 
before the staminate 
ones mature) the in- 
closing tube of the 
spathe partly unrolls, 
so that snails, very 
small insects, or other 
animals which might 
bear pollen from 
other — inflorescences 
may enter. The tube 
soon closes tightly 
again, the limb of the 
spathe opens more or 
less widely, and the 
staminate flowers, ex- 
posed to view, quickly 
mature and shed their 
pollen. Except in the 
case of one variety 
from Java the tube 
has not been observed 
by the writer to open 
sufficiently to expose 
any of the pistillate 
flowers to view. 
Some varieties of 
Fic. 1—Corm of a dasheen (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Colocasia esculenta 
Schott) that has borne several flower stalks in one of 
the leaf axils. The distortion caused by the production (L.) Schott, the most 
of the stalks and the scar where they were borne are seen important species of 
slightly above the middle of the corm. (P19420FS.) taro, seem entirely to 
have lost the flowering habit, and others flower at very rare intervals. 
Some, however, flower more or less freely. No record of the setting 
of seed by taros except in Hawaii has been found. A taro grower 
there reported in 1913 that he had grown several seedlings, and 
early in 1919 Gerrit P. Wilder, of Honolulu, stated that he had 
raised several hundred taro seedlings. An attempt to secure seed 
by means of hand pollination in Florida was unsuccessful. 
The flower stalks of taros (as well as of yautias) are borne by the 
corms, usually in one cluster of four or five stalks to each corm that 
flowers. This causes some distortion of the corm, forming a shoulder 
(ia, 1). 
At least four or five species are believed to be included among the 
scores of edible varieties of taros, The varieties having shown suffi- 
