Voii. XXXIX. No. 14 .) 
Whole No. 1675. ( 
NEW YORK, APRIL 3, 1880. 
j Price Five Cents. 
1 $2.00 Per Year. 
[Entered according- to Act of Congress, In the year 1880, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
i 
fyoriiniltural, 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
The Chinese Ynm, Dioscoren Batatas. 
The accompanying sketch of this vine was 
made last season from a specimen that has 
been growing here for several years. Little 
need be said as to the value of the roots. They 
grow from one to three feet in length, largest 
at the bottom. They are quite tender, break¬ 
ing almost like a pipe-stem, so that, if grown 
in large quantities as a field or garden crop, 
the labor of digging them would cost more 
than the crops would be worth when har¬ 
vested. As an ornamental plant, the Diosco- 
rea is of much value. It is In every way as 
desirable as the Madeira Vine, while the roots, 
being quite hardy, the vine, when once 
started, needB no farther care. The growth of 
the stem from the time it appears above 
ground until about June 10, is remarkable. It 
is like a purple, rope without leaves or leaf ap¬ 
pendages of any kind. This “rope” attains 
the hight of from 10 to 15 feet before the buds 
push, living meanwhile upon the nourishment 
stored up in the root, being a biennial in its 
nature, the same as the oarrot, beet, parsnip 
turnip, dahlia or sweet potato. We mention 
this because it has often been stated that the 
Chinese Yam increases in size from year to 
year, whereas the yam of one season dies dur¬ 
ing the next. In early June lateral buds push 
and the stems soon become wreathed in 
CHINESE YAM—DIOSCOREA BATATAS—(From Nature.)—Fig. 102.. 
