BATATA. 
53 
full rose-purple, outside and limb pale, handsome but not large, 
about If in. in diam., closely aggregate in naked erect axillary 
many-fld. abbreviate dense shortly fork-branched cymes about 
as long as the 1. at the top of the "thick stout firm stiff straight 
erect or ascending angular dichotomously and shortly branched 
ped. which is as long as or longer than the petiole; pedic. 
clustered short stout round smooth verruculate 2-3 lines long ; 
br. none or inconspicuous and early caducous. Cal. smooth ; 
sep. subequal oblong keeled, abruptly contracted at top into the 
short excurrent awn or mucro of the keel. Cor. 1 in. long alto- 
gether smooth tubular-campanulate or -infundibuliform, limb but 
little expanded, f in. broad. Fil. and style smooth, of equal length, 
w., purple at the base, the former, like the inside of cor. -tube 
quite at the base, haiiy, the hairs w. Anth. erect pale yellowish. 
Stigma an abrupt large double globe, scrotiform, strongly gra- 
nulate. Ov. pilose upwards with long w. erect hairs, 4-celled 
4-seeded. Nectary waxy-yellow 5-crenate or obtusely lobed, 
shallow cup-shaped, about 1^ mill. high. 
I have never met with ripe or perfect seeds or caps, either in 
Mad., the Canaries or Cape-Verdes. The pedic. fall off at their 
junction with the ped. together with the fi. shortly after flower- 
ing. Grisebach 1. c. describes the caps, as 2-celled and seeds 
u glabrous except a few puberulous lines.” 
The root-tubers are of various shapes and sizes, sometimes 
globose or ovoidal but mostly oblong like red or w. kidney 
potatoes, often elongato-fusiform, rarely knobby, either pale 
drab-brown or dirty yellowish w. or dull dark purplish red 
outside. Flesh whilst raw crisp and sweet, when boiled soft, 
yet in good sorts firm and often mealy, very sweet, of a dull 
w., y. or orange col. The w. -fleshed old sort var. (3 (. Batata 
vclha or da terra ) is by far the best, being more usually firm 
dry and mealy, not unlike a boiled chestnut. The new Deme- 
rara sort var. a (B. de Demeraiva ), whether w. or y., is more 
of the watery consistence of a boiled turnip, like the y.-fleshed 
var. of the old sort. Both are far better baked than boiled. 
Eaten incautiously, whether largely or otherwise for several 
days consecutively, and unmixed with other food, they are 
found to possess in some degree the laxative or drastic proper- 
ties of others of their tribe. Still they form a large proportion 
of the food of all the labouring classes in Mad. 
The mode of culture is very simple. It consists in planting 
