26 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



supply, in consequence of the parties being too much 

 exhausted to dig it up before they resorted to it, 

 or from eating it raw, or some other cause, I am not 

 able to determine. It is quite certain that when 

 this substance is grated, or reduced to a pulp by 

 beating and mixing with cold water, a large quantity 

 of arrowroot is precipitated, which adheres to the 

 bottom of the vessel, and which may easily be pre- 

 pared for use by pouring off the water and floating 

 matter, adding fresh water, and stirring up the white 

 powder, and again allowing it to settle. It may then 

 be cooked by boiling, or the powder may be spread 

 on cloths and dried in the sun, or hung up in linen 

 bags where there is a free circulation of the air." ^ 



It is interesting to note that the common Bracken 

 has sometimes been used in Northern Europe and 

 Siberia to make a coarse kind of bread. The rhizome, 

 or underground stem, is the part employed for that 

 purpose, as in the case of the Tara Fern. Having a 

 knowledge of this application of fern root, the Rev. 

 M. J. Berkeley, in 1856, made some experiments in 

 order to ascertain what kind of food it would furnish. 

 " I accordingly roasted some of the rhizomata (under- 

 ground stem, popularly called the root) and found 

 them eatable, but extremely disagreeable from their 

 slimy consistence and peculiar flavour, in both of 

 which respects they precisely resemble ill-ripened 

 Brinjals. It struck me, however, that they might 

 afford a better food if the slimy matter could be re- 

 moved. I accordingly scraped some of the rhizomata, 



' On the esculent plants of Van Dieman's Land, in " Companion to 

 Botanical Magazine," vol. ii. p. 39. (1836.) 



