Colocasia Antiquorum Research Articles

Meiosis and pollen mitosis in diploid and triploid Colocasia antiquorum Schott.

The relationship between diploid and triploid forms of Colocasia antiquorum Schott. was assessed through comparative meiotic and pollen mitotic studies. Owing to poor spreading of the chromosomes of both materials, karyological observations on pachytene nuclei were limited to a few chromosomes. Among the two nucleolar chromosomes and a metacentric, telochromomere-bearing chromosome of the diploid, the latter and one of the nucleolar chromosomes characterized by a heteropycnotic short arm were identified in both bivalent and trivalent associations in the triploid. The homologues in these cases were homomorphic and intimately paired. Two types of heteromorphic bivalents exhibiting partial pairing of homomorphic segments were also recorded in the triploid. Among the 14 bivalents of the diploid at diakinesis, two were nucleolus-associated. In the triploid, chromosomal associations at diakinesis included trivalents (2 to 9), bivalents and univalents, and the chiasma frequency per paired chromosome was lower than in the diploids. In 21.6 percent of the PMCs at this stage intragenomic pairing of one or two chromosomes was observed. Post-diakinesis stages in the diploid were regular while in the triploid they were marked by various irregularities in a majority of the cells. However, fertility (stainability), size and divisional frequency of pollen in both materials were remarkably similar. Chromosome numbers in pollen nuclei in the triploid ranged from 8 to 25. Based on these data an autopolyploid origin for the triploid Colocasia and a lower base number than the gametic chromosome number for this genus are advanced.

The Maori Agricultural Revolution: Tropical Crops and Temperate Land

The Maori Agricultural Revolution: Tropical Crops and Temperate Land Gordon R. Lewthwaite*1 There is little doubt that the Maori agricultural revolution was one of the most remarkable achievements ofprehistoric time. In one decisive leap, without benefit of intervening land mass or opportunity for gradual adjustment, the Polynesians traversed almost 2,000 if not 3,000 miles of open sea to carry their crops from the heart of the tropics to temperate middle latitudes. True enough, the transition from the Cooks, the Societies, and the Marquesas may have been eased by the introduction of differentcrops atdifferenttimes—though that is a moot question—and success was far from complete. Coconut and breadfruit, banana and plantain, «i-apple and rose-apple, pandanus and hibiscus—all the rich fruits and fibers of the islands—were swept away by a brusque climatic veto, while the sole survivor of arboriculture, the paper-mulberry, existed only in stunted and virtually useless form. The Polynesian arrowroot and giant aroids were lost, too. But it was not so much the losses which were remarkable; it was the tenacious survival of several tropical crop plants in latitudes beyond the threshold of climatic tolerance and the success with which the Maori gardener adapted to a basically hostile environment . The real wonder is that he was able to carry on at all. In essence a cooler and more seasonal climate expunged tree culture but left the gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), which could dodge ß Dr. Lewthwaite is Professor of Geography at San Fernando Valley State College, Northridge, California 91324. This article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers at Washington, D. C, August 1968. Research was supported by a grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation to study the historical geography of the Maori. Dr. Lewthwaite did field work in New Zealand and several other Pacific islands in 1964 and in 1967. 99 100ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS the New Zealand winter by virture of its seeds, and four more delicate tuber crops. The taro (Colocasia antiquorum), "king of roots" and basic staple of the islands, was drastically reduced in significance and yield, though if current experiments by Yen and others1 give any clue, it may have been hardy enough to weather the winter at least in a few sheltered spots. But more critical is the seemingfact that the basic crop-plant of Maoriland, the sweet potato or humara (Ipomoea batatas) and the still more delicate yam (Discorea sp.) and ti (Cordyline terminalis) were somehow introduced and cherished into productivity despite the fact that none of them, according to the experiments so far conducted, could have survived a single winter in the field. Part of the puzzle is the fact that the immigrantPolynesians were conditioned to horticultural methods that were fine for the tropics but fatal in New Zealand. Virtually all Polynesian agriculture, derived largely from the primitive southeast Asian culture hearth but also from South America in the case of the sweet potato, rested on the premise that continuous reproduction from vegetable stem cuttings was safe and sound. When the tuber was lifted, a bunch of stems was detached and thrust back into the soil and the cycle of life went on without climatic intermission. True enough, there were dry seasons and even erratic spells as in the Marquesas when the population shifted emphasis from breadfruit to taro or carried on with supplies of breadfruit paste retrieved from the storage pits, but this was nothing like the problem in New Zealand where humara, yam, and ti would simply vanish in the course of a year if tropical practices were followed and the plants left to face wind and weather. An apparently abrupt revolution in agricultural methods was essential. The question is, therefore, how on earth did the Maori succeed? Some believe that the introduction of tropical crops was assisted by a climate distinctly warmer and wetter than that which now prevails and make their appeal to the evidence of soil and vegetation. As Raeside read the evidence embedded in South Island soils,2 ancient 1 D. E. Yen, "The Adaptation of Kumara by the New Zealand Maori," Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 70 (1961), pp. 338-348...

Investigations on starches from major starch crops grown in Ghana I.—Hot paste viscosity and gel‐forming power

AbstractThe most important rheological properties of starches of several major starch crops grown in Ghana were examined. the consistency changes during the whole pasting cycle and the gel‐forming power were tested with starches of several species of yams (Dioscorea), plantain (Musa paradisiaca) cultivars, cocoyams (both Xanthosoma sagittifolium and Colocasia antiquorum) and several local varieties of cassava (Manihot utilissima). Most of the yam starches gave very viscous pastes yielding very strong and ‘short’ gels on cooling, some of them with a very high retrogradation tendency. the rheological properties of plantain starches were similar to those of yam starches; cocoyam starches produced pastes which had lower viscosity and exhibited some breakdown on prolonged heating and stirring and a poorer setback on cooling. With ‘new’ cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) the gel‐forming power, however, was higher than that of cassava and sweet‐potato starches.

Two Types of Swidden Agriculture in Tropics

The swidden agriculture is widely distributed in the tropical zone. Its distribution seems to have been already clarified by D. Whittlesey. As it is well known, D. Whittlesey had classified this tropical native agriculture as two types: shifting cultivation and rudimental sedentary tillage.Nevertheless, according to the recent scientific results his two types are not always considered to be suitable to explain the tropical native agriculture. (Refer to Morgan, W.B.: Agriculture in Southern Nigeria, Econ. Geogr. Vol.35, 1959). Furthermore, among the researchers there are so diversified appreciation about the swidden agriculture that a scientific tendency has been brought on to seek after certain new type in the swidden agriculture in the tropics. For example, Komei Sasaki, having located many principal treatises of tropical swidden agriculture in the history, has suggested the two types concept in the Human Geography (The Jimbun-Chiri) Vol.17, No.6, 1965.:1) Millet cultivation type brought about in the Savanna environmentand2) Root cultivation type in the Rain Forest environment. Including Sasaki's concept most of the tropical swidden agricultural studies had been mainly centered upon the crop complex as well as upon the crop rotation system. Really they are mere one partial concept of the agriculture, and in such studies, we should say, they are touching to the agricultural complex rather at the standpoint of time than at its spacial side. Primarily doing of agriculture is embodied in cultivation of the ground. In this sense it is not to be approved that the concept of types centering upon the crop complex and the crop rotation system has enough ground to rely on.Therefore, in this treatise, I would like to investigate these types in touching to the crop rotation system at the standpoint of time and simultaneously to the land use pattern from the side of space. In other words, I am going ahead with my studies upon the relation between the crop rotation system and the land use pattern at the unit of village. I picked up as my research field Nigeria, West Africa, where presents a sharp contrast between the Savanna environment and the Rain Forest environment.According to the concept of the swidden agriculture in West Africa there are counted 9 kinds of the staple subsistence crop: Fonio Digtaria exilis, Maize Zea mays, Pearl Millet Pennisietnm typhoideum, Sorghum Sorghum spp., Finger Millet Eleusine coracana, Manioc Manihot utilissima, Taro Colocasia antiquorum, Yam Dioscorea spp., Plantain Musa sapientum, M. paradisiaca.Most extensively distributed cereals in Western Africa are Pearl Millet and Sorghum. They are cultivated at the Sudan Belt in the Savanna environment. On the other hand the representative crop from Roots is Yam. Maize has the range in every areas.The crop rotation system is found in Northern Nigeria where Pearl Millet and Sorghum are taken as staple subsistence crop. In Middle and Southern Nigeria Yam is the first year's crop in its rotation system. In Southern Nigeria there is one or two years of cultivated period and the planted crops are almost Roots. In some areas the planting percentage of Maize amounts 20-30%. In the Intermediate area between the North and the South, the rotation system is generally practised: in the first year they plant Yam, then after Cereals and Roots by rotation. In such a process we are able to recognize the transitive phases from the crop rotation system toward the millet cultivation type or the root cultivation type which Sasaki had suggested. This root cultivation type also coincides with the wood fallow as the fallow system.In comparing with each land use patterns at the unit of village, it has been made out that this pattern distinctly reflects the crop rotation system.

Experimental Study to Compare the Effect of X-ray on the Somatic Chromosomes of a Few Species of Monocotyledons

Bulbs and rhizomes of Nothoscordum fragrans, Haemanthus kalbreyeri, Zephyranthes mesochloa, Colocasia antiquorum, Zingiber officinale and Curcuma amada were irradiated at dosages of 250r and 500r, and the effect of irradiation was noted.2. After forty-eight hours following treatment, heavy fragmentation, formation of micronuclei, structural alteration of chromosomes, lagging, etc. were observed in a large number of cases.3. Frequency of fragments were found to be higher in treatment with 500r than with 250r dosage. This shows that the cells at different phages of interkinetic condition, in these species, become differentially affected following irradiation. This is in contrast to the previous report obtained with bulbs of Allium cepa, where all the interkinetic cells were found to be homogeneous as regards their response to irradiation is concerned.4. It has been suggested that at the time of treatment, certain resting cells were lying at the last phase of interkinetic condition, that is, in a state just prior to germination. The enzymatic activity of these cells, necessary for germination, was completed at the time of treatment and so their germination capacity was not inhibited. In other young resting cells, however, the germination capacity was checked temporarily.5. Fragments were found to be persisting after several days following irradiation. In Nothoscordum fragrans, fragments persisted even upto 2496 hours or one hundred and four days. Instead of assuming that fragments can remain ununited for such a long period, it has been suggested that possibly these fragments have passed through several cell generations, being included at random in the daughter cells and are on their way to degeneration.

STUDIES ON KONJAC ASTHMA

1) In the two patients of conjac asthma, on which I reported in the previous paper with regard to scratch test, ocular test (conjunctival test) and Prausnitz-Küstner test, etc, I succeeded to induce asthmatic paroxysm with the conjac flying-powder or its extract.2) Asthmatic paroxysm could not be induced with the conjac flying-powder in any of eleven patients of general asthma. Nor could it be induced in either of the two patients of conjac asthma by the inhalation of powdered root of Colocasia antiquorum and spinach, etc.3) The evident paroxysm could not be induced in the two patients by subcutaneous injection of histamine or mecholin (β-methyl-acetylcholine), but it could be induced in both by the inhalation of acetylcholine, and in case 2 by the inhalation of histamine.4) Analysis for the allergen by the inhalation test revealed that it was found in the protein fraction5) Administration of cortisone and ACTH could not prevent the development of paroxysm.From these results, conjac asthma was considered to be allergic asthma due to the allegen of the conjac flying-powder

Classification of the taro varieties in Japan

1. The taro, in Japan, has many synonyms, as the cultivating history is old. So we tried, since 1945, to survey the 205 varieties of the taros collected all over this country, China, Formosa and southern islands, and to classify them in order to clear up oecological significance according to shape of leaves and tubers, chromosome numbers, and bud mutation. 2. Green colour degree, distribution of anthocy-an, crookedness of neck part of leaf-stalk, wilting of leaves and maturity are clearly different among varieties. 3. Shape of the corm has three types: round, cylindrical, and multiple-headed. Lateral tuber varieties(the corm is coarse and does not develope so large) and Akame in corm-tuber varieties (both corm and tubers are able to eat) are round, corm varieties (growth of lateral tubers is poor and few) are cylindrical, and only Yatsugashira and Shogaimo are multiple-headed. Lateral-tubers of Hasubaimo, Kurojiku and those of round shape line of Ishikawa-wase and Dotare are, too, in good shape. 4. Outbreak of lateral tubers is, naturally, different by maturity speed but only Hasubaimo is late in spite of its early maturity. Of second lateral tubers from first tubers, Kurojiku group has the most numbers. 5. From shape of flower organs, we think Eguimo and Okinawa-aoguki are Colocasia antiquorum Schott. var. trpica of Engler classification, the other lateral tuber varieties are var. globulifera, and corm-tuber varieties are var. esculenta. 6. Bud mutation is lately found; mutation ofanthocyan ditstribution on petiole at Yamagatataimo, Tonoimo and Akame, and mutation of out-break of lateral tubers at Yatsugashira. But we have not found the mutation changed to a remote variety group. 7. Chromosome numbers of these varieties studied by the Kyushu university have their important significance in this classification. 8. The varieties, in Japan, are classified from these above standpoints as follows.

Moas and Man (PART I)

When we remember that the Maoris volunteered no traditional information about the extinct moa (Dinornis) until Europeans had unearthed its bones, said nothing about the Chatham Islands until after their discovery by Europeans, only recalled dim memories of inhabitants before the Fleet of A.D. 1350 in response to persistent questioning by Europeans, and could not tell us whether Hawaiki was Tahiti or Samoa, we realize the always supine rôle of Maori tradition in aiding the researches of the culture historian.However the sheer mass and variety of these orally transmitted traditions prevented the student from realizing how irrelevant they were to his theme, and caused him to believe that the Maori purpose in transmitting traditions was like his—to satisfy an essentially academic curiosity about the past. The gradual cessation of the output of published traditions has given students the leisure to realize the limitations of those already recorded, and sobered us against the expectation that a Maori tradition current in the 19th century might include a description of a bird which lived perhaps in the 13th, or go into detail over the appearance and habits of the tribes whom his Fleet ancestors dispossessed in the 14th.Fortunately the need for the family to maintain its status within the clan, the clan within the tribe, and the tribe as against other tribes, did involve the careful transmission of family trees (Whakapapa). By comparing the number of generations in many lines back to a Fleet ancestor, the arrival of the Fleet was placed in the mid-14th century. By a brilliant application of the method beyond New Zealand, Percy Smith found a three generation name sequence immediately prior to the Fleet arrival common to Hawaii, the Society Islands, the Cook Islands and New Zealand. This established with reasonable certainty that the movement which brought the canoes of the Fleet to New Zealand originated in the Society Islands and simultaneously sent migrants to the Hawaiian and Cook groups. Traditions in New Zealand recorded with a significant unanimity the names of the canoes of the Fleet migration, their landing places, and the tribes which sprang from each. They noted the introduction by the immigrants of the sweet potato (kumara), the taro (Colocasia antiquorum), the gourd (Lagenaria), and the yam (uwhi), both by means of references to incidents of the voyage or by accounts of subsequent return trips to Hawaiki to fetch these plants.

On the Nature of Recretion from Colocasia antiquorum var. esculentum

1. Calcium concentration of recretion sap was nearly constant in certain range of the concentration of KNOP'S solution. When the nutrient solution became diluted, the calcium concentration in the recretion sap suddenly fell. When the nutrient solution became concentrated, the concentration of calcium in the recretion sap also rised. The calcium concentration in the exudation sap was lower than that of the nutrient solution when the nutrient solution was comparatively concentrated and higher when the nutrient solution was comparatively diluted.2. The amount of calcium exuded per hour was almost constant in certain range of KNOP'S solution and diminished in the low concentration of calcium in the nutrient solution.3. The volume of exudation sap per hour was almost constant in certain range of KNOP'S solution and diminished when the nutrient solution was more concentrated than natural KNOP'S solution or more diluted than 1/8-KNOP'S solution.4. When the nutrient solution was simple KH2PO4 solution, recretion ceased when the solution became more concentrated than 0.075%. As the concentration of salt in KNOP'S solution is much higher than this, it seems that recretion has not necessarily to do with the sum of the concentration of salts in the case of KNOP'S solution.5. The relation between the potassium concentration in the exudation sap and the nutrient solution showed equal tendency with calcium. But it must be noted that the potassium concentration was higher than that of calcium. The amount of potassium exuded per hour was not constant in some range of KNOP'S solution as calcium, but decreased as the concentration of nutrient solution became diluted. In individual plants, the variation of the concentration of calcium and potassium took equal tendency.6. In soil-cultured plants, the recretion was more vigorous in comparison with that of the water-cultured plants.7. From the results obtained in Colocasia, the absorption of salts seems not to take place in epithem.8. The concentration of calcium and potassium was not always low but often high when the volume of exudation sap was great. So great amount of calcium and potassium was excreted in strong recretion. The subject for investigation was suggested by Prof. Dr. H. NAKANO, to whom I wish to tender my best thanks for his kind directions.

Cytological Studies in Colocassia : Preliminary report

1. The material used in this investigation is as follows. Pollen mother cells (Colocasia antiquorum, SCHOTT) Root tip cells (Colocasia antiquorum. SCHOTT) Root tip cells (Colocasia gigantea. HOOK f'.) These were fixed in BOUINA'S solution and stained with HEIDENHAIN'S iron-alum-haematoxylin. 2. The haploid number of the chromosomes of Colocasia antiquorum is fourteen (Fig. 1). Tha diploid number of the chromosomes of Colocasia antiquorum and Colocasia gigantea is twenty eight (Gigs. 2 and 3). 3. During the meiotic cell division in Colocasia antiquorum lagging chromosomes are observed and, very often, pollens with many nucleoli are formed. The sterility of this plant may be due to the irregular meiosis.

Societies and Academies

MANCHESTER. Literary and Philosophical Society, May 30.-Prof. W. W. Haldane Gee, vice-president, in the chair.- Dr. W. H. R. Rivers: Irrigation and the cultivation of taro. In the New Hebrides and New Caledonia irrigation is only used for the cultivation of Colocasia antiquorum, the taro of the Polynesians. This intimate connection between irrigation and taro, which is found in other parts of Oceania, suggests that if irrigation belongs to the megalithic culture (W. J. Perry, Manchester Memoirs, vol. lx., part i.), taro must have had a similar history. The distribution of the plant supports this suggestion, showing a close correspondence with that of the megalithic culture when its tropical and semi-tropical habits are taken into account. It occurs in Oceania, the Malay Archipelago, India and eastern Asia, Arabia, Egypt, East and West Africa, the Canary Islands, Algeria, southern Italy, Spain and Portugal, as well as tropical America. Since the original habitat of the plant is southern Asia, its use as a food was probably acquired by the megalithic people in India and taken by them both to the east and west. Although the general distribution of taro in southern Melanesia corresponds with that of the megalithic influence, a difficulty is raised by the island of Malekula, in the New Hebrides. So far as we know, irrigation does not occur in this island, although megalithie influence is present in a very definite form. To account for the absence of irrigation in this island it is shown that modes of disposal of the dead point to two megalithic intrusions into Oceania, and the high degree of development of irrigation in such outlying islands and districts as New Caledonia, Anaiteum, and north-western Santo in Melanesia, and the Marquesa and Paumotu Islands in Polynesia, suggests that this practice belonged to the earlier of the two movements. There is reason to believe that this movement had relatively little influence in Malekula.-Prof. G. Elliot Smith: The arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe. At a time when little was known of early man and his works beyond the stone implements which he fashioned. Sir John Lub-bock (afterwards Lord Avebury) suggested the use of the terms Palaeolithic and Neolithic to distinguish respectively between the earlier part of the Stone age, when crudely worked implements were made, and the later period, when more carefully finished workmanship was shown. In spite of the fact that subsequent investigation revealed a high degree of skill in the craftsmanship of the Upper Palaeolithic period, which in many respects shows a very much closer affinity to the Neolithic than to the Lower Palaeolithic period, Lubbock's terminology has become, so firmly established that it has continued to determine the primary subdivision into epochs of the early history of man. Recent research has brought to light a vast amount of new information relating to the achievements of Upper Palaeolithic man, and has conclusively shown that human culture and artistic expression had already attained the distinctive characters which mark them as the efforts of men like ourselves. This view has been amply confirmed by the general recognition of the fact that, after the disappearance of Neanderthal man at the end of the Mousterian period, the new race of men that supplanted them in Europe and introduced the Aurignacian culture conform in all essential respects to our own specific type, Homo sapiens. Thus the facts of physical structure, no less than the artistic abilities and the craftsmanship, of the men of the Upper Palaeolithic proclaim their affinity with ourselves. The earlier types of mankind which invaded Europe and left their remains near Piltdown, Heidelberg, and in the various Mousterian stations belong to divergent species, and perhaps genera, which can be grouped together as belonging to a Palaeahthropic age, which gave place (at the end of the Mousterian epoch in Europe) to a Neoanthropic age, when men of the modern type, with' higher skill and definite powers of artistic expression, made their appearance and supplanted their predecessors. So long as primary importance continues to be assigned to the terms Palaeolithic and Neolithic, the perspective of anthropology will be distorted. Though the facts enumerated in this communication are widely recognised, it is found that the writers who frankly admit them lapse from time to time into the mode of thought necessarily involved in the use of the terms Palaeolithic and Neolithic. If modern ideas are to find their just and unbiassed expression some such new terminology as is suggested here becomes necessary.