5oo 
Notes  on  the  Dasheen  and  Chayote. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
August,  19 19. 
name  appears  to  be  a  corruption  of  the  French  phrase  "  de  la  Chine" 
which  means  "  from  China."2 
Description  of  Plant. — The  plant  is  a  variety  of  the  species 
Colocasia  escnlenta  (L.)  Schott,  a  member  of  the  Aracece  family, 
and  closely  related  to  the  common  elephant  ear  plant  of  our  gardens. 
Its  underground  parts  (Fig.  3)  consist  of  a  large  central  corm 
Fig.  2.  Aerial  portion  of  the  Trinidad  Dasheen,  Colocasia  csculenta  (L.) 
Schott,  as  grown  in  the  P.  C.  P.  greenhouse.  Note  the  long  petioled,  peltate 
leaves,  whose  laminae  show  auriculate  basal  lobes.    X  %• 
weighing  from  two  to  four  pounds,  of  spheroidal  or  broadly  fusi- 
form shape  and  reddish-brown  color,  and,  in  addition,  numerous  lat- 
eral cormels,  which  spring  from  various  nodes  along  the  periphery 
of  the  mother  or  central  corm.    Both  mother  corm  and  lateral  cor- 
2  R.  A.  Young,  "  The  Dasheen ;  its  Uses  and  Culture,"  Separate  689,  U.  S. 
Dept.  of  Agriculture  Yearbook,  1916. 
C.  F.  Langworthy  and  A.  D.  Holmes,  "  The  Digestibility  of  the  Dasheen," 
Bulletin  612,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Agriculture,  1917. 
