where it is most extensively grown, on account of its useful 

 and medicinal properties. Some have supposed its native 

 country to be Africa, but Pohl expressly states it to be 

 indigenous to Brazil, where there exist many apparent 

 varieties, differing chiefly in the breadth of the segments of 

 their leaves, which that author has distinguished in his truly 

 splendid " Icones et Descriptiones Plantarum Brasilia*/' as 

 so many distinct species. Indeed, he says himself, of his 

 dwarf <c Manihot pusilla, Ego quidem meam Manihot 

 pusillam primitivam ipsius Manihot utilissimce plantam 

 esse censeo/' 



It is stated in the Hortus Kewensis, that the Jatropha 

 Manihot blossoms in our collections in the months of July 

 and August. But I have never been able to procure recent 

 flowering specimens ; and 1 have felt greatly obliged to my 

 valued correspondent, Dr. Nicholson of Antigua, for an 

 excellent drawing, here given, made from the recent plant 

 in that island. 



Two kinds are especially cultivated in the Colonies, the 

 Sweet Cassada of Browne's Jamaica (p. 350) and Lunan's 

 Hort. Jam. (v. 1. p. 163.) Manihot Aipi, Pohl; whose root 

 is of a white colour, and free from deleterious qualities : and 

 the Bitter Cassada, whose root is yellowish, and abounds in 

 a poisonous juice. We shall confine our observations to 

 the latter kind, which is the one here figured and described. 

 They seem not to differ in botanical character. 



When it is considered, that the Manioc belongs to a tribe 

 of plants, the Euphorbiace^:, which is essentially distin- 

 guished by its acrid and poisonous qualities, and that the 

 root of the plant itself abounds in a juice of this peculiar 

 character, it cannot fail to excite astonishment in the minds 

 of those who are not already aware of the fact, that it never- 

 theless yields an abundant flour, rendered innocent indeed 

 »y the art of man, and thus most extensively employed in 

 lieu of bread, throughout a very large portion of South 

 America : and that even to our country it is largely im- 

 ported, and served up at table, under the name of Tapioca. 



Such is the poisonous nature of the expressed juice of the 

 Ma NI0Cj that it has been known to occasion death in a few 

 Minutes. By means of it, the Indians destroyed many of 

 their Spanish persecutors. M. Fernier, a physician at 

 Surinam, administered a moderate dose to dogs and cats, 

 ^no died in a space of twenty -five minutes, passed in great 

 torments. Their stomachs, on being opened, exhibited no 

 symptoms of inflammation, nor affection of the viscera, nor 



was 



