358 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the natives have distinct names; and it is culti¬ 
vated in low marshy parts^ as the plant is found to 
thrive best in moist situations. A large kind, called ape, 
arum costatmn^ which is frequently planted in the dry 
grounds, is also used in some seasons, but is considered 
inferior to the taro. 
All the varieties are so exceedingly acrid and pungent 
in their raw state, as to cause the greatest pain, if not 
excoriation, should they be applied to the tongue or 
palate. They are always baked in the same manner as 
bread-fruit is dressed; the rind, or skin, being first 
scraped off with a shell. The roots are solid, and 
generally of a mottled green or gray colour; and when 
baked, are palatable, farinaceous, and nutritive, resem¬ 
bling the Irish potato more than any other root in the 
islands. 
The different varieties of arum are propagated either 
by transplanting the small tubers, which they call pohiri, 
that grow round the principal root, or setting the top 
or crown of those roots used for food. When destitute 
of foreign supplies, we have attempted to make flour 
with both the bread-fruit and the taro, by employing the 
natives to scrape the root and fruit into a kind of pulpy 
paste, then drying it in the sun, and grinding it in a 
hand-mill. The taro in this state was sometimes rather 
improved, but the bread-fruit seldom is so good as when 
dressed immediately after it has been gathered. 
The uM, or yam, dioscoria alata, a most valuable 
root, appears to be indigenous in most of the South 
Sea Islands, and flourishes remarkably well. Several 
kinds grow in the mountains; their shape is generally 
long and round, and the substance rather fibrous, but 
remarkably farinaceous and sweet. The kind most in 
