|^ 84 M. SEEMANN'S JOURNAL. 
[Temale plants by grafting or by layers; and, although these processes 
| have been successful, it remains yet to be ascertained whether trees 
| multiplied in this way are as productive as those raised from seeds*. 
^ Besides the Nutmeg, extensive plantations of the Cassava (Manihot 
utilissima, Pohl) have been established ; and it is stated that they pay 
exceedingly well. The farinaceous substance, prepared from the plant, 
is exported partly raw, partly in the form of pearl sago; and so well 
has the latter preparation been imitated, that it has actually been mis- 
taken for real sago. The Manihot is naturalized—not indigenous, as 
some think—in many parts of Singapore. The white residents call it 
Tapioca ; the Malays, Ubi caju. The Mexican appellation is Quauhea- 
mote; the West-Indian, Cassava, Cazabi, and Mandioc ; and the New- 
Granadian, Ecuadorian, and Peruvian, Yuca. It is a curious coinci- 
dence, that both the Mexican and Malayan names of this shrub signify 
precisely the same, viz, * woody tuber," as its roots, or properly 
speaking, its tubers, when remaining too long in the ground, become as 
hard as wood, and unfit for useT. 
The Cocoa-nut Palm is another production cultivated to a consi- - 
derable extent, principally for the sake of its oil and fibre. The 
Toddy, which the natives extract from the leaves, is here of no com- 
mercial importance. It has a sweet and pleasant taste, but is much 
inferior in flavour to the Palm wine which the inhabitants of tropical 
America know so well how to prepare, and which, if good, is equal, if 
not superior, to the best champagne. Unfortunately, in order to ex- 
tract the latter, the mere tapping of the leaves, as with the Toddy, 
is not sufficient ; the whole Palm has to be felled, which, even in 
| the “Journal of the Indian Archipelago,’ vol. ii. p. 641-661. 
E When, in 1517, the plant was shown to the prisoners brought to Cuba by 
the same as the Aztec fan or talli, which signifies country, territory, soil, earth ; 
e appears in the composition of several Mexican names, for instance, Mazatlan, 
> Mezitlan, etc, 
s 
* 
