Origin of Cultivated Plants

Garlic has been long cultivated in China under the name of suan. It is written in Chinese by a single sign, which usually indicates a long known and even a wild species.[205 - Bretschneider, Study and Value, etc., pp. 15, 4, and 7.] The floras of Japan[206 - Thunberg, Fl. Jap.; Franchet and Savatier, Enumeratio, 1876, vol. ii.] do not mention it, whence I gather that the species was not wild in Eastern Siberia and Dahuria, but that the Mongols brought it into China.

According to Herodotus, the ancient Egyptians made great use of it. Archæologists have not found the proof of this in the monuments, but this may be because the plant was considered unclean by the priests.[207 - Unger, Pflanzen des Alten Ægyptens, p. 42.]

There is a Sanskrit name, mahoushouda,[208 - Piddington, Index.] become loshoun in Bengali, and to which appears to be related the Hebrew name schoum or schumin,[209 - Hiller, Hierophyton; Rosenmüller, Bibl. Alterthum, vol. iv.] which has produced the Arab thoum or toum. The Basque name baratchouria is thought by de Charencey[210 - De Charencey, Actes de la Soc. Phil., 1st March, 1869.] to be allied with Aryan names. In support of his hypothesis I may add that the Berber name, tiskert, is quite different, and that consequently the Iberians seem to have received the plant and its name rather from the Aryans than from their probable ancestors of Northern Africa. The Lettons call it kiplohks, the Esthonians krunslauk, whence probably the German Knoblauch. The ancient Greek name appears to have been scorodon, in modern Greek scordon. The names given by the Slavs of Illyria are bili and cesan. The Bretons say quinen,[211 - Davies, Welsh Botanology.] the Welsh craf, cenhinnen, or garlleg, whence the English garlic. The Latin allium has passed into the languages of Latin origin.[212 - All these common names are found in my dictionary compiled by Moritzi from floras. I could have quoted a larger number, and mentioned the probable etymologies, as given by philologists – Hehn, for instance, in his Kulturpflanzen aus Asien, p. 171 and following; but this is not necessary to show its origin and early cultivation in several different countries.] This great diversity of names intimates a long acquaintance with the plant, and even an ancient cultivation in Western Asia and in Europe. On the other hand, if the species has existed only in the land of the Kirghis, where it is now found, the Aryans might have cultivated it and carried it into India and Europe; but this does not explain the existence of so many Keltic, Slav, Greek, and Latin names which differ from the Sanskrit. To explain this diversity, we must suppose that its original abode extended farther to the west than that known at the present day, an extension anterior to the migrations of the Aryans.

If the genus Allium were once made, as a whole, the object of such a serious study as that of Gay on some of its species,[213 - Annales des Sc. Nat., 3rd series, vol. viii.] perhaps it might be found that certain wild European forms, included by authors under A. arenarium, L., A. arenarium, Sm., or A. scorodoprasum, L., are only varieties of A. sativum. In that case everything would agree to show that the earliest peoples of Europe and Western Asia cultivated such form of the species just as they found it from Tartary to Spain, giving it names more or less different.

Onion —Allium Cepa, Linnæus.

I will state first what was known in 1855;[214 - A. de Candolle, Géogr. Bot. Raisonnée, ii. p. 828.] I will then add the recent botanical observations which confirm the inferences from philological data.

The onion is one of the earliest of cultivated species. Its original country is, according to Kunth, unknown.[215 - Kunth, Enumer., iv. p. 394.] Let us see if it is possible to discover it. The modern Greeks call Allium Cepa, which they cultivate in abundance, krommunda.[216 - Fraas, Syn. Fl. Class., p. 291.] This is a good reason for believing that the krommuon of Theophrastus[217 - Theophrastus, Hist., l. 7, c. 4.] is the same species, as sixteenth-century writers already supposed.[218 - J. Bauhin, Hist., ii. p. 548.] Pliny[219 - Pliny, Hist., l. 19, c. 6.] translated the word by cœpa. The ancient Greeks and Romans knew several varieties, which they distinguished by the names of countries: Cyprium, Cretense, Samothraciae, etc. One variety cultivated in Egypt[220 - Ibid.] was held to be so excellent that it received divine honours, to the great amusement of the Romans.[221 - Juvenalis, Sat. 15.] Modern Egyptians designate A. Cepa by the name of basal[222 - Forskal, p. 65.] or bussul,[223 - Ainslie’s Mat. Med. Ind., i. p. 269.] whence it is probable that the bezalim of the Hebrews is the same species, as commentators have said.[224 - Hiller, Hieroph., ii. p. 36; Rosenmüller, Handbk. Bibl. Alterk.; iv. p. 96.] There are several distinct names —palandu, latarka, sakandaka,[225 - Piddington, Index; Ainslie’s Mat. Med. Ind.] and a number of modern Indian names. The species is commonly cultivated in India, Cochin-China, China,[226 - Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., ii.; Loureiro, Fl. Cochin., p. 249.] and even in Japan.[227 - Thunberg, Fl. Jap., p. 132.] It was largely consumed by the ancient Egyptians. The drawings on their monuments often represent this species.[228 - Unger, Pflanzen d. Alt. Ægypt., p. 42, figs. 22, 23, 24.] Thus its cultivation in Southern Asia and the eastern region of the Mediterranean dates from a very early epoch. Moreover, the Chinese, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin names have no apparent connection. From this last fact we may deduce the hypothesis that its cultivation was begun after the separation of the Indo-European nations, the species being found ready to hand in different countries at once. This, however, is not the present state of things, for we hardly find even vague indications of the wild state of A. Cepa. I have not discovered it in European or Caucasian floras; but Hasselquist[229 - Hasselquist, Voy. and Trav., p. 279.] says, “It grows in the plains near the sea in the environs of Jericho.” Dr. Wallich mentioned in his list of Indian plants, No. 5072, specimens which he saw in districts of Bengal, without mentioning whether they were cultivated. This indication, however insufficient, together with the antiquity of the Sanskrit and Hebrew names, and the communication which is known to have existed between the peoples of India and of Egypt, lead me to suppose that this plant occupied a vast area in Western Asia, extending perhaps from Palestine to India. Allied species, sometimes mistaken for A. Cepa, exist in Siberia.[230 - Ledebour, Fl. Rossica, iv. p. 169.]

The specimens collected by Anglo-Indian botanists, of which Wallich gave the first idea, are now better known. Stokes discovered Allium Cepa wild in Beluchistan. He says, “wild on the Chehil Tun.” Griffith brought it from Afghanistan and Thomson from Lahore, to say nothing of other collectors, who are not explicit as to the wild or cultivated nature of their specimens.[231 - Aitchison, A Catalogue of the Plants of the Punjab and the Sindh, in 8vo, 1869, p. 19; Baker, in Journal of Bot., 1874, p. 295.] Boissier possesses a wild specimen found in the mountainous regions of the Khorassan. The umbels are smaller than in the cultivated plant, but there is no other difference. Dr. Regel, jun., found it to the south of Kuldscha, in Western Siberia.[232 - Ill. Hortic., 1877, p. 167.] Thus my former conjectures are completely justified; and it is not unlikely that its habitation extends even as far as Palestine, as Hasselquist said.

The onion is designated in China by a single sign (pronounced tsung), which may suggest a long existence there as an indigenous plant.[233 - Bretschneider, Study and Value, etc., pp. 47 and 7.] I very much doubt, however, that the area extends so far to the east.

Humboldt[234 - Nouvelle Espagne, 2nd edit., ii. p. 476.] says that the Americans have always been acquainted with onions, in Mexican xonacatl. “Cortes,” he says, “speaking of the comestibles sold at the market of the ancient Tenochtillan, mentions onions, leeks, and garlic.” I cannot believe, however, that these names applied to the species cultivated in Europe. Sloane, in the seventeenth century, had only seen one Allium cultivated in Jamaica (A. Cepa), and that was in a garden with other European vegetables.[235 - Sloane, Jam., i. p. 75.] The word xonacatl is not in Hernandez, and Acosta[236 - Acosta. Hist. Nat. des Indes, French trans., p. 165.] says distinctly that the onions and garlics of Peru are of European origin. The species of the genus Allium are rare in America.

Spring, or Welsh Onion—Allium fistulosum, Linnæus.

This species was for a long time mentioned in floras and works on horticulture as of unknown origin; but Russian botanists have found it wild in Siberia towards the Altaï mountains, on the Lake Baïkal in the land of the Kirghis.[237 - Ledebour, Flora Rossica, iv. p. 169.] The ancients did not know the plant.[238 - Lenz, Botanik. der Alten Griechen und Römer, p. 295.] It must have come into Europe through Russia in the Middle Ages, or a little later. Dodoens,[239 - Dodoens, Pemptades, p. 687.] an author of the sixteenth century, has given a figure of it, hardly recognizable, under the name of Cepa oblonga.

Shallot—Allium ascalonicum, Linnæus.

It was believed, according to Pliny,[240 - Pliny, Hist., l. 19, c. 6.] that this plant took its name from Ascalon, in Judæa; but Dr. Fournier[241 - He will treat of this in a publication entitled Cibaria, which will shortly appear.] thinks that the Latin author mistook the meaning of the word Askalônion of Theophrastus. However this may be, the word has been retained in modern languages under the form of échalote in French, chalote in Spanish, scalogno in Italian, Aschaluch or Eschlauch in German.

In 1855 I had spoken of the species as follows:[242 - Géog. Bot. Raisonnée, p. 829.]—

“According to Roxburgh,[243 - Roxburgh, Fl. Ind.; edit. 1832, vol. ii. p. 142.]Allium ascalonicum is much cultivated in India. The Sanskrit name pulandu is attributed to it, a word nearly identical with palandu, attributed to A. Cepa.[244 - Piddington, Index.] Evidently the distinction between the two species is not clear in Indian or Anglo-Indian works.

“Loureiro says he saw Allium ascalonicum cultivated in Cochin-China,[245 - Loureiro, Fl. Cochin., p. 251.] but he does not mention China, and Thunberg does not indicate this species in Japan. Its cultivation, therefore, is not universal in the east of Asia. This fact, and the doubt about the Sanskrit name, lead me to think that it is not ancient in Southern Asia. Neither, in spite of the name of the species, am I convinced that it existed in Western Asia. Rauwolf, Forskal, and Delile do not mention it in Siberia, in Arabia, or in Egypt. Linnæus[246 - Linnæus, Species, p. 429.] mentions Hasselquist as having found the species in Palestine. Unfortunately, he gives no details about the locality, nor about its wild condition. In the Travels of Hasselquist[247 - Hasselquist, Voy. and Trav., 1766, pp. 281, 282.] I find a Cepa montana mentioned as growing on Mount Tabor and on a neighbouring mountain, but there is nothing to prove that it was this species. In his article on the onions and garlics of the Hebrews he mentions only Allium Cepa, then A. porrum and A. sativum. Sibthorp did not find it in Greece,[248 - Sibthorp, Prodr.] and Fraas[249 - Fraas, Syn. Fl. Class., p. 291.] does not mention it as now cultivated in that country. According to Koch,[250 - Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ., 2nd edit., p. 833.] it is naturalized among the vines near Fiume. However, Viviani[251 - Viviani, Fl. Dalmat., p. 138.] only speaks of it as a cultivated plant in Dalmatia.

“From all these facts I am led to believe that Allium ascalonicum is not a species. It is enough to render its primitive existence doubtful, to remark: (1) that Theophrastus and ancient writers in general have spoken of it as a form of the Allium Cepa, having the same importance as the varieties cultivated in Greece, Thrace, and elsewhere; (2) that its existence in a wild state cannot be proved; (3) that it is little cultivated, or not all, in the countries where it is supposed to have had its origin, as in Syria, Egypt, and Greece; (4) that it is commonly without flowers, whence the name of Cepa sterilis given by Bauhin, and the number of its bulbs is an allied fact; (5) when it does flower, the organs of the flower are similar to those of A. Cepa, or at least no difference has been hitherto discovered, and according to Koch[252 - Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ.] the only difference in the whole plant is that the stalk and leaves are less swelled, although fistulous.”

Such was formerly my opinion.[253 - A. de Candolle, Géogr. Bot. Raisonnée, p. 829.] The facts published since 1855 do not destroy my doubts, but, on the contrary, justify them. Regel, in 1875, in his monograph of the genus Allium, declares he has only seen the shallot as a cultivated species. Aucher Eloy has distributed a plant from Asia Minor under the name of A. ascalonicum, but judging from my specimen this is certainly not the species. Boissier tells me that he has never seen A. ascalonicum in the East, and it is not in his herbarium. The plant from the Morea which bears this name in the flora of Bory and Chaubard is quite a different species, which he has named A. gomphrenoides. Baker,[254 - Baker, in Journ. of Bot., 1874, p. 295.] in his review of the Alliums of India, China, and Japan, mentions A. ascalonicum in districts of Bengal and of the Punjab, from specimens of Griffith and Aitchison; but he adds, “They are probably cultivated plants.” He attributes to A. ascalonicum Allium sulvia, Ham., of Nepal, a plant little known, and whose wild character is uncertain. The shallot produces many bulbs, which may be propagated or preserved in the neighbourhood of cultivation, and thus cause mistakes as to its origin.

Finally, in spite of the progress of botanical investigations in the East and in India, this form of Allium has not been found wild with certainty. It appears to me, therefore, more probable than ever that it is a modification of A. Cepa, dating from about the beginning of the Christian era – a modification less considerable than many of those observed in other cultivated plants, as, for instance, in the cabbage.

Rocambole—Allium scorodoprasum, Linnæus.

If we cast a glance at the descriptions and names of A. scorodoprasum in works on botany since the time of Linnæus, we shall see that the only point on which authors are agreed is the common name of rocambole. As to the distinctive characters, they sometimes approximate the plant to Allium sativum, sometimes regard it as altogether distinct. With such different definitions, it is difficult to know in what country the plant, well known in its cultivated state as the rocambole, is found wild. According to Cosson and Germain,[255 - Cosson and Germain, Flore, ii. p. 553.] it grows in the environs of Paris. According to Grenier and Godron,[256 - Grenier and Godron, Flore de France, iii. p. 197.] the same form grows in the east of France. Burnat says he found the species undoubtedly wild in the Alpes-Maritimes, and he gave specimens of it to Boissier. Willkomm and Lange do not consider it to be wild in Spain,[257 - Willkomm and Lange, Prodr. Fl. Hisp., i. p. 885.] though one of the French names of the cultivated plant is ail or eschalote d’Espagne. Many other European localities seem to me doubtful, since the specific characters are so uncertain. I mention, however, that, according to Ledebour,[258 - Ledebour, Flora Rossica, iv. p. 163.] the plant which he calls A. scorodoprasum is very common in Russia from Finland to the Crimea. Boissier received a specimen of it from Dobrutscha, sent by the botanist Sintenis. The natural habitat of the species borders, therefore, on that of Allium sativum, or else an attentive study of all these forms will show that a single species, comprising several varieties, extends over a great part of Europe and the bordering countries of Asia.

The cultivation of this species of onion does not appear to be of ancient date. It is not mentioned by Greek and Roman authors, nor in the list of plants recommended by Charlemagne to the intendants of his gardens.[259 - Le Grand d’Aussy, Histoire de la Vie des Français, vol. i. p. 122.] Neither does Olivier de Serres speak of it. We can only give a small number of original common names among ancient peoples. The most distinctive are in the North. Skovlög in Denmark, keipe and rackenboll in Sweden.[260 - Nemnich, Polyglott. Lexicon, p. 187.]Rockenbolle, whence comes the French name, is German. It has not the meaning given by Littré. Its etymology is Bolle, onion, growing among the rocks, Rocken.[261 - Ibid.]

Chives—Allium schœnoprasum, Linnæus.

This species occupies an extensive area in the northern hemisphere. It is found all over Europe, from Corsica and Greece to the south of Sweden, in Siberia as far as Kamtschatka, and also in North America, but only near the Lakes Huron and Superior and further north[262 - Asa Gray, Botany of the Northern States, edit. 5, p. 534.]– a remarkable circumstance, considering its European habitat. The variety found in the Alps is the nearest to the cultivated form.[263 - De Candolle, Flore Française, iv. p. 227.]

The ancient Greeks and Romans must certainly have known the species, since it is wild in Italy and Greece. Targioni believes it to be the Scorodon schiston of Theophrastus; but we are dealing with words without descriptions, and authors whose specialty is the interpretation of Greek text like Fraas and Lenz, are prudent enough to affirm nothing. If the ancient names are doubtful, the fact of the cultivation of the plant at this epoch is yet more so. It is possible that the custom of gathering it in the fields existed.

Colocasia—Arum esculentum, Linnæus; Colocasia antiquorum, Schott.[264 - Arum Egyptium, Columma, Ecphrasis, ii. p. 1, tab. 1; Rumphius, Amboin, vol. v. tab. 109. Arum colocasia and A. esculentum, Linnæus; Colocasia antiquorum, Schott, Melet., i. 18; Engler, in D. C. Monog. Phaner., ii. p. 491.]

This species is cultivated in the damp districts of the tropics, for the swelled lower portion of the stem, which forms an edible rhizome similar to the subterraneous part of the iris. The petioles and the young leaves are also utilized as a vegetable. Since the different forms of the species have been properly classed, and since we have possessed more certain information about the floras of the south of Asia, we cannot doubt that this plant is wild in India, as Roxburgh[265 - Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., iii. p. 495.] formerly, and Wight[266 - Wight, Icones, t. 786.] and others have more recently asserted; likewise in Ceylon,[267 - Thwaites, Enum. Plant. Zeylan., p. 335.] Sumatra,[268 - Miquel, Sumatra, p. 258.] and several islands of the Malay Archipelago.[269 - Rumphius, Amboin, vol. v. p. 318.]

Chinese books make no mention of it before a work of the year 100 B.C.[270 - Bretschneider, On the Study and Value, etc., p. 12.] The first European navigators saw it cultivated in Japan and as far as the north of New Zealand,[271 - Forster, De Plantis Escul., p. 58.] in consequence probably of an early introduction, and without the certain co-existence of wild stocks. When portions of the stem or of the tuber are thrown away by the side of streams, they naturalize themselves easily. This was perhaps the case in Japan and the Fiji Islands,[272 - Franchet and Savatier, Enum., p. 8; Seemann, Flora Vitiensis, p. 284.] judging from the localities indicated. The colocasia is cultivated here and there in the West Indies, and elsewhere in tropical America, but much less than in Asia or Africa, and without the least indication of an American origin.

In the countries where the species is wild there are common names, sometimes very ancient, totally different from each other, which confirms their local origin. Thus the Sanskrit name is kuchoo, which persists in modern Hindu languages – in Bengali, for instance.[273 - Roxburgh, Fl. Ind.] In Ceylon the wild plant is styled gahala, the cultivated plant kandalla.[274 - Thwaites, Enum. Plant. Zeylan.] The Malay names are kelady,[275 - Rumphius, Amboin.]tallus, tallas, tales, or taloes,[276 - Miquel, Sumatra, p. 258; Hasskarl, Cat. Horti. Bogor. Alter., p. 55.] from which perhaps comes the well-known name of the Otahitans and New Zealanders —tallo or tarro,[277 - Forster, De Plantis Escul., p. 58.]dalo[278 - Seemann, Flora Vitiensis.] in the Fiji Islands. The Japanese have a totally distinct name, imo,[279 - Franchet and Savatier, Enum.] which shows an existence of long duration either indigenous or cultivated.

European botanists first knew the colocasia in Egypt, where it has perhaps not been very long cultivated. The monuments of ancient Egypt furnish no indication of it, but Pliny[280 - Pliny, Hist., l. 19, c. 5.] spoke of it as the Arum Ægyptium. Prosper Alpin saw it in the sixteenth century, and speaks of it at length.[281 - Alpinus, Hist. Ægypt. Naturalis, edit. 2, vol. i. p. 166; ii. p. 192.] He says that its name in its country is culcas, which Delile[282 - Delile, Fl. Ægypt. Ill., p. 28; De la Colocase des Anciens, in 8vo, 1846.] writes qolkas, and koulkas. It is clear that this Arab name of the Egyptian arum has some analogy with the Sanskrit kuchoo, which is a confirmation of the hypothesis, sufficiently probable, of an introduction from India or Ceylon. De l’Ecluse[283 - Clusius, Historia, ii. p. 75.] had seen the plant cultivated in Portugal, as introduced from Africa, under the name alcoleaz, evidently of Arab origin. In some parts of the south of Italy, where the plant has become naturalized, it is, according to Parlatore, called aro di Egitto.[284 - Parlatore, Fl. Ital., ii. p. 255.]

The name colocasia, given by the Greeks to a plant of which the root was used by the Egyptians, may evidently come from colcas, but it has been transferred to a plant differing from the true colcas. Indeed, Dioscorides applies it to the Egyptian bean, or nelumbo,[285 - Prosper Alpinus, Hist. Ægypt. Naturalis; Columna; Delile, Ann. du Mus., i. p. 375; De la Colocase des Anciens; Reynier, Economie des Egyptiens, p. 321.] which has a large root, or rather rhizome, rather stringy and not good to eat. The two plants are very different, especially in the flower. The one belongs to the Araceæ, the other to the Nymphæaceæ; the one belongs to the class of Monocotyledons, the other to that of the Dicotyledons. The nelumbo of Indian origin has ceased to grow in Egypt, while the colocasia of modern botanists has persisted there. If there is any confusion, as seems probable in the Greek authors, it must be explained by the fact that the colcas rarely flowers, at least in Egypt. From the point of view of botanical nomenclature, it matters little that mistakes were formerly made about the plants to which the name colocasia should be applied. Fortunately, modern scientific names are not based upon the doubtful definitions of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and it is sufficient to say now, if the etymology is insisted upon, that colocasia comes from colcas in consequence of an error.

Apé, or Large-rooted Alocasia—Alocasia macrorrhiza, Schott; Arum macrorrhizum, Linnæus.

This araceous plant, which Schott places now in the genus Colocasia, now in the Alocasia, and whose names are far more complicated than might be supposed from those indicated above,[286 - See Engler, in D. C. Monographiæ Phanerogarum, ii. p. 502.] is less frequently cultivated than the common colocasia, but in the same manner and nearly in the same countries. Its rhizomes attain the length of a man’s arm. They have a distinctly bitter taste, which it is indispensable to remove by cooking.

The aborigines of Otahiti call it apé, and those of the Friendly Isles kappe.[287 - Forster, De Plantis Esculentis Insularum Oceani Australis, p. 58.] In Ceylon, the common name is habara, according to Thwaites.[288 - Thwaites, Enum. Pl. Zeyl., p. 336.] It has other names in the Malay Archipelago, which argues an existence prior to that of the more recent peoples of these regions.

The plant appears to be wild, especially in Otahiti.[289 - Nadeaud, Enum. des Plantes Indigènes, p. 40.] It is also wild in Ceylon, according to Thwaites, who has studied botany for a long time in that island. It is mentioned also in India[290 - Engler, in D. C. Monog. Phaner.] and in Australia,[291 - Bentham, Flora Austr., viii. p. 155.] but its wild condition is not affirmed – a fact always difficult to establish in the case of a species cultivated on the banks of streams, and which is propagated by bulbs. Moreover, it is sometimes confounded with the Colocasia indica of Kunth, which grows in the same manner, and is found here and there in cultivated ground; and this species grows wild, or is naturalized in the ditches and streams of Southern Asia, although its history is not yet well known.

Konjak—Amorphophallus Konjak, Koch; Amorphophallus Rivieri, du Rieu, var. Konjak, Engler.[292 - Engler, in D. C. Monogr. Phaner., vol. ii. p. 313.]

The konjak is a tuberous plant of the family Araceæ, extensively cultivated by the Japanese, a culture of which Vidal has given full details in the Bulletin de la Société d’Acclimatation of July, 1877. It is considered by Engler as a variety of Amorphophallus Rivieri, of Cochin-China, of which horticultural periodicals have given several illustrations in the last few years.[293 - Gardener’s Chronicle, 1873, p. 610; Flore des Serres et Jardins, t. 1958, 1959; Hooker, Bot. Mag., t. 6195.] It can be cultivated in the south of Europe, like the dahlia, as a curiosity; but to estimate the value of the bulbs as food, they should be prepared with lime-water, in Japanese fashion, so as to ascertain the amount of fecula which a given area will produce.

Dr. Vidal gives no proof that the Japanese plant is wild in that country. He supposes it to be so from the meaning of the common name, which is, he says, konniyakou or yamagonniyakou, yama meaning “mountain.” Franchet and Savatier[294 - Franchet and Savatier, Enum. Pl. Japoniæ, ii. p. 7.] have only seen the plant in gardens. The Cochin-China variety, believed to belong to the same species, grows in gardens, and there is no proof of its being wild in the country.

Yams—Dioscorea sativa, D. batatas, D. japonica and D. alata.

The yams, monocotyledonous plants, belonging to the family Dioscorideæ, constitute the genus Dioscorea, of which botanists have described about two hundred species, scattered over all tropical and sub-tropical countries. They usually have rhizomes, that is, underground stems or branches of stems, more or less fleshy, which become larger when the annual, exposed part of the plant is near its decay.[295 - M. Sagot, Bull. de la Soc. Bot. de France, 1871, p. 306, has well described the growth and cultivation of yams, as he has studied them in Cayenne.] Several species are cultivated in different countries for these farinaceous rhizomes, which are cooked and eaten like potatoes.

The botanical distinction of the species has always presented difficulties, because the male and female flowers are on different individuals, and because the characters of the rhizomes and the lower part of the exposed stems cannot be studied in the herbarium. The last complete work is that of Kunth,[296 - Kunth, Enumeratio, vol. v.] published in 1850. It requires revision on account of the number of specimens brought home by travellers in these last few years. Fortunately, with regard to the origin of cultivated species, certain historical and philological considerations will serve as a guide, without the absolute necessity of knowing and estimating the botanical characters of each.

Roxburgh enumerates several Dioscoreæ[297 - These are D. globosa, alata, rubella, fasciculata, purpurea, of which two or three appear to be merely varieties.] cultivated in India, but he found none of them wild, and neither he nor Piddington[298 - Piddington, Index.] mentions Sanskrit names. This last point argues a recent cultivation, or one of originally small extent, in India, arising either from indigenous species as yet undefined, or from foreign species cultivated elsewhere. The Bengali and Hindu generic name is alu, preceded by a special name for each species or variety; kam alu, for instance, is Dioscorea alata. The absence of distinct names in each province also argues a recent cultivation. In Ceylon, Thwaites[299 - Thwaites, Enum. Plant. Zeyl., p. 326.] indicates six wild species, and he adds that D. sativa, L., D. alata, L., and D. purpurea, Roxb., are cultivated in gardens, but are not found wild.

The Chinese yam, Dioscorea batatas of Decaisne,[300 - Decaisne, Histoire et Culture de l’Igname de Chine, in the Revue Horticole, 1st July and Dec. 1853; Flore des Serres et Jardins, x. pl. 971.] extensively cultivated by the Chinese under the name of Sain-in, and introduced by M. de Montigny into European gardens, where it remains as a luxury, has not hitherto been found wild in China. Other less-known species are also cultivated by the Chinese, especially the chou-yu, tou-tchou, chan-yu, mentioned in their ancient works on agriculture, and which has spherical rhizomes (instead of the pyriform spindles of the D. batatas). The names mean, according to Stanislas Julien, mountain arum, whence we may conclude the plant is really a native of the country. Dr. Bretschneider[301 - On the Study and Value, etc., p. 12.] gives three Dioscoreæ as cultivated in China (D. batatas, alata, sativa), adding, “The Dioscorea is indigenous in China, for it is mentioned in the oldest work on medicine, that of the Emperor Schen-nung.”

Dioscorea japonica, Thunberg, cultivated in Japan, has also been found in clearings in various localities, but Franchet and Savatier[302 - Franchet and Savatier, Enum. Plant. Japoniæ, ii. p. 47.] say that it is not positively known to what degree it is wild or has strayed from cultivation. Another species, more often cultivated in Japan, grows here and there in the country according to the same authors. They assign it to Dioscorea sativa of Linnæus; but it is known that the famous Swede had confounded several Asiatic and American species under that name, which must either be abandoned or restricted to one of the species of the Indian Archipelago. If we choose the latter course, the true D. sativa would be the plant cultivated in Ceylon with which Linnæus was acquainted, and which Thwaites calls the D. sativa of Linnæus. Various authors admitted the identity of the Ceylon plant with others cultivated on the Malabar coast, in Sumatra, Java, the Philippine Isles, etc. Blume[303 - Blume, Enum. Plant. Javæ, p. 22.] asserts that D. sativa, L., to which he attributes pl. 51 in Rheede’s Hortus Malabaricus, vol. viii., grows in damp places in the mountains of Java and of Malabar. In order to put faith in these assertions, it would be necessary to have carefully studied the question of species from authentic specimens.

The yam, which is most commonly cultivated in the Pacific Isles under the name ubi, is the Dioscorea alata of Linnæus. The authors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries speak of it as widely spread in Tahiti, in New Guinea, in the Moluccas, etc.[304 - Forster, Plant. Esculent., p. 56; Rumphius, Amboin, vol. v., pl. 120, 121, etc.] It is divided into several varieties, according to the shape of the rhizome. No one pretends to have found this species in a wild state, but the flora of the islands whence it probably came, in particular that of Celebes and of New Guinea, is as yet little known.

Passing to America, we find there also several species of this genus growing wild, in Brazil and Guiana, for instance, but it seems more probable that the cultivated varieties were introduced. Authors indicate but few cultivated species or varieties (Plumier one, Sloane two) and few common names. The most widely spread is yam, igname, or inhame, which is of African origin, according to Hughes, and so also is the plant cultivated in his time in Barbados.[305 - Hughes, Hist. Nat. Barb., 1750, p. 226.]

He says that the word yam means “to eat,” in several negro dialects on the coast of Guinea. It is true that two travellers nearer to the date of the discovery of America, whom Humboldt quotes,[306 - Humboldt, Nouvelle Espagne, 2nd edit., vol. ii. p. 468.] heard the word igname pronounced on the American continent: Vespucci in 1497, on the coast of Paria; Cabral in 1500, in Brazil. According to the latter, the name was given to a root of which bread was made, which would better apply to the manioc, and leads me to think there must be some mistake, more especially since a passage from Vespucci, quoted elsewhere by Humboldt,[307 - Ibid., p. 403.] shows the confusion he made between the manioc and the yam. D. Cliffortiana, Lam., grows wild in Peru[308 - Hænke, in Presl, Rel., p. 133.] and in Brazil,[309 - Martius, Fl. Bras., v. p. 43.] but it is not proved to be cultivated. Presl says verosimiliter colitur, and the Flora Brasiliensis does not mention cultivation.

The species chiefly cultivated in French Guiana, according to Sagot,[310 - Sagot, Bull. Soc. Bot. France, 1871, p. 305.] is Dioscoreæ triloba, Lam., called Indian yam, which is also common in Brazil and the West India Islands. The common name argues a native origin, whereas another species, D. cayennensis, Kunth, also cultivated in Guiana, but under the name of negro-country yam, was most likely brought from Africa, an opinion the more probable that Sir W. Hooker likens a yam cultivated in Africa on the banks of the Nun and the Quorra,[311 - Hooker, Fl. Nigrit, p. 53.] to D. cayennensis. Lastly, the free yam of Guiana is, according to Dr. Sagot, D. alata introduced from the Malay Archipelago and Polynesia.

In Africa there are fewer indigenous Dioscoreæ than in Asia and America, and the culture of yams is less widely spread. On the west coast, according to Thonning,[312 - Schumacher and Thonning, Besk. Guin, p. 447.] only one or two species are cultivated; Lockhardt[313 - Brown, Congo, p. 49.] only saw one in Congo, and that only in one locality. Bojer[314 - Bojer, Hortus Mauritianus.] mentions four cultivated species in Mauritius, which are, he says, of Asiatic origin, and one, D. bulbifera, Lam., from India, if the name be correct. He asserts that it came from Madagascar, and has spread into the woods beyond the plantations. In Mauritius it bears the name Cambare marron. Now, cambare is something like the Hindu name kam, and marron (marroon) indicates a plant escaped from cultivation. The ancient Egyptians cultivated no yams, which argues a cultivation less ancient in India than that of the colocasia. Forskal and Delile mention no yams cultivated in Egypt at the present day.