THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 409 



The same pores exude at one time a beneficent nourish- 

 ment, at another a treacherous poison ; demulcent juices or 

 corrosive liquids. The same fruit, or the same root, nour- 

 ishes or instantly kills us. 



The tapioca, on which the American savage feeds, and 

 which is so often employed at our tables, abounds in the 

 midst of a poison as deadly as the philters of Locusta. The 

 edible portion is taken out for the purposes of commerce ; 

 but the negroes, when they want to commit suicide, eat the 

 root whole. The effect is almost as rapid as that of prussic 

 acid. 1 



On one spot bloom friendly flowers, the folds of which 

 only distil a perfumed nectar that the bee transforms into 

 honey ; elsewhere, sombre corollas, like those of the crown- 

 imperial, and some azaleas, exude only venomous juices. 

 Woe to the insect that feeds thereon, for they yield only 

 deadly products. Our readers will recollect the accident 

 which overtook the army of Xenophon near Trebizond, 



1 Two products which are extensively used as food for man, cassava and tapi- 

 oca, are elaborated in the midst of the most deadly juices. They are both furnished 

 by the root of the Manihot utilissima (the Janipha Manihot), found extensively 

 in Africa and the West Indies. The negroes are well acquainted with the viru- 

 lence of this poison ; but as it is very volatile and easily decomposed, being consid- 

 ered analogous to prussic acid, it is easily destroyed and rendered powerless by 

 fermentation, so that the rude tribes of America manage to extract from the 

 starchy root of the manioc the nourishing food so often served up at our tables 

 under the name of tapioca. 



It is composed of tolerably pure fecula, which is collected with care, but the 

 farina of manioc, on which so many of the American races feed, is coarser. All 

 they do in order to extract it is to press the roots of the plant ; the result of 

 which is a mixture of starch, vegetable fibre, and extractive matter. It is after- 

 wards dried in chimneys, and when desiccation is sufficiently advanced it is pow- 

 dered, and bread is made of the flour it yields. 



