"Dioscorea" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... West Australian tuber, Dioscorea hastifolia, Ness., N.O. Dioscorideae. "One of the hardiest of the Yams. The tubers are largely consumed by the local aborigines for food; it is the only plant on which they bestow any kind of cultivation." (Mueller, apud ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris
... that the name is "a foreign fruit, and not native to these Indies,"—also, that "it came with that evil lot of Negroes, ... of whom there is a greater number than is necessary, on account of their rebellions" (pp. 203-4). Now in Africa the yam (Dioscorea), cultivated before the coming of the Europeans, is known by names derived from Arabic arum and gambah, e.g., Ewe ad[>e], ad[>z]e, Mandingo nyambe, Malinke nyeme ku,—whence the supposed Indian names, aje, age, niame, igname, ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 5, 1920 • Various |
