The following Paper on the Chinese Tam, and its culti- 
vation, was read hy Sir Samuel Wilson, before the Council 
of the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society, at its Fort- 
nightly Meeting of the ^rd June, 1878. A unanimous vote 
of thanks was accorded to the writer. 
THE CHINESE YAM. 
Although the Chinese yam has been introduced into 
this colony for a considerable time, it has not been appre- 
ciated as its merits deserve. It has been hitherto culti- 
vated more as a curiosity, than as a valuable esculent, and 
it is my belief that, if properly known, it would come into 
general use, as an important addition to the list of vege- 
tables in daily use at our tables. It is a most excellent 
tuber, somewhat similar to the common potato, but of a 
snowy whiteness, and of a delicious flaky consistency, far 
surpassing the potato in flavour. 
It is known scientiflcally as the Pioscorea Japonica of 
Thunberg, or the Pioscorea batatas of Decaisne, having 
been named after Dioscorides, a Greek physician, and is 
extensively cultivated in China and through a great part 
of the East, as well as in Eiji and the South Sea Islands, 
where it, or a nearly allied species, forms a large part of 
the food of the natives at certain seasons of the year. 
Thunberg, a celebrated botanist, and a disciple of Linnaeus, 
discovered the Pioscorea Japonica towards the end of the 
last century, and it was introduced into Victoria by Baron 
von Mueller in 1858. 
K 
