SIUM [1] TARO, DASHEEN
_COLOCASIUM_

FOR THE COLOCASIUM (WHICH IS REALLY THE COLOCASIA PLANT, ALSO CALLED
"EGYPTIAN BEAN") USE [2] PEPPER, CUMIN, RUE, HONEY, OR BROTH, AND A
LITTLE OIL; WHEN DONE BIND WITH ROUX [3] COLOCASIUM IS THE ROOT OF THE
EGYPTIAN BEAN WHICH IS USED EXCLUSIVELY [4].

[1] Cf. notes to {Rx} Nos. 74, 172, 216, 244; also the
copious explanations by Humelberg, fol. III.

[2] Tor. who is trying hard to explain the _colocasium_.
His name, "Egyptian Bean" may be due to the mealiness
and bean-like texture of the _colocasium_ tuber;
otherwise there is no resemblance to a bean, except,
perhaps, the seed pod which is not used for food. This
simile has led other commentators to believe that the
_colocasium_ in reality was a bean.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has in recent years
imported various specimens of that taro species
(belonging to the _colocasia_), and the plants are now
successfully being farmed in the southern parts of the
United States, with fair prospects of becoming an
important article of daily diet. The Department has
favored us repeatedly with samples of the taro, or
dasheen, (_Colocasium Antiquorum_) and we have made many
different experiments with this agreeable, delightful
and important "new" vegetable. It can be prepared in
every way like a potato, and possesses advantages over
the potato as far as value of nutrition, flavor, culture
and keeping qualities are concerned. As a commercial
article, it is not any more expensive than any good kind
of potato. It grows where the potato will not thrive,
and vice versa. It thus saves much in freight to parts
where the potato does not grow.

The ancient _colocasium_ is no doubt a close relative of
the modern dasheen or taro. The Apician _colocasium_ was
perhaps very similar to the ordinary Elephant-Ear,
_colocasium Antiquorum Schott_, often called _caladium
esculentum_, or _tanyah_, more recently called the
"Dasheen" which is a corruption of the French "de
Chine"--from China--indicating the supposed origin of
this variety of taro. The dasheen is a broad-leaved
member of the _arum_ family. The name dasheen originated
in the West Indies whence it was imported into the
United States around 1910, and the name is now
officially adopted.

Mark Catesby, in his Natural History of Ca