superiority is as two to one in favor of the tropical
roots.

The kidney-rooted yam (_D. pentaphylla_), is indigenous to the
Polynesian islands, and is sometimes cultivated for its roots. It is
called _kawaii_ in the Feejee islands. _D. bulbifera_, a native of the
East, is also abundantly naturalised in the Polynesian islands, but is
not considered edible.

There are seven or eight kinds of yams grown in India. Two are of a
remarkably fine flavor, one weighing as much as eighteen pounds, the
other three pounds. These are found in the Tartar country.

COCOS OR EDDOES

_Arum esculentum_.--This root has not hitherto been considered of
sufficient importance to demand particular care in its cultivation,
except by those who are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and derive
their subsistence from the production of the soil. But though the
cultivation of the root is almost unknown to the higher classes in
society, and little regarded by planters in the colonies, it is a most
valuable article of consumption. Amongst the laboring population it is
the principal dependence for a supply of food. Long droughts may
disappoint the hopes of the yam crop, storms and blight may destroy
the plantain walks, but neither dry or wet weather materially injure
the coco; it will always make some return, and though it may not
afford a plentiful crop, it will yield a sufficiency until a supply
can be had from other sources. For this reason the laborer in the West
Indies always takes care to put in a good plant of cocos to his
provision ground as a stand by, and knowing their value, is perhaps
the only person who bestows any degree of care or attention upon them.
Previous to their emancipation, whole families of negroes lived upon
the produce of one provision ground, and the coco formed the main
article of their support. Where the soil is congenial to the white and
black Bourbon coco, the labor of one industrious person once a
fortnight will raise a supply sufficient for the consumption of a
family of six or seven persons. The coco begins to bear after the
first year, and with common care and cultivation the same plant ought
to give annually two or three returns for several years. In Jamaica, a
disease something similar to that affecting the potato, has been found
injurious to the coco root. This disease, which has baffled all
inquiry as to its origin, affects the plants in and after the second
year of their being planted. The first indicatio