Excerpt from The Manufacture of Poi From Taro in Hawaii: With Special Emphasis Upon Its Fermentation The colocasias or taros are generally considered to be the most important group of the edible aroids. The plant is common in various tropical regions, approximately 300 distinct varieties being known according to Barrett A botanical description of the plant and a summary of the conditions under which it thrives best will not be considered here. The interested reader is referred to the works of Higgins (21) and Sedgwick (37) on these subjects. When or how the taro came to Hawaii is not known. In View of its distinct place in the lives of the Polynesian races there is reason to believe that taro was carried by them to, various South Sea Islands, whence it rapidly spread to other tropical islands, including Hawan. Brown (12) states that the taro was introduced into the Marquesas Islands from Hawaii by Tueni, a Hawaiian who came ashore in the valley of Hakaui (marquesas) from a burning ship bringing the Hawaiian taro with him. The dasheen is probably the best known of the taros in temperate regions. It has recently attracted attention in the southeastern United States as a possible substitute for the com mon potato. The term dasheen is thought by Young (47) to have been derived from the expression dc Chine, thus signifying that this particular variety came from China. Barrett (5) recognizes as the only difference between taro and dasheen the presence of small tuberous outgrowths on the corms of the latter. Apparently there is little difference between the true taro and the dasheen, and in this bulletin the terms dasheen and taro are used synonomously. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.