EUPHORBIA IPECACUANHA. 37 
This plant is an inhabitant of the tropical portions of America and the West Indies; some fine roots I have 
obtained from St. Domingo, but it is common in the other islands. _ It is cultivated for food, and is called Manioc. It 
yields an abundant crop without much attention, the roots attaining their full development at the expiration of the 
first year. These are sometimes of very large size, and weigh ten to thirty pounds. They are of an ashy-brown 
colour externally, internally white and fibrous, and possessed of a slight prussic odour and an acrid taste. 
To obtain the fecula, the roots are scraped and: reduced to pulp; the juice is then expressed ; this on standing 
deposits fecula, which, when washed and dried on hot plates, assumes the granulated form, and constitutes Tapioca ; 
if dried by a moderate heat, it retains the pulverulent form, and is sometimes sold for arrowroot. ‘The latter is called 
Moussache by the Spaniards, and, according to Pereira, constitutes Brazilian arrowroot. The pulp, from which the 
juice has been expressed, when spread in cakes and baked, constitutes Cassava bread, and if dried merely and reduced 
to powder, is Cassava powder. : 
There are two kinds of Manioc, the dctter and the sweet ; the former is employed to procure the fecula, the latter 
is used as a vegetable ; the plant of the sweet is smaller, and the root is rougher, reddish, and smaller. 
The juice of the bitter manioc may be ranged under the head of acro-narcotic poisons, producing inflammation 
of the prime vie in small doses, with prostration of the vital powers, and speedy death in larger quantities. It is used 
as a poison by the negroes of the West Indies. The poisonous principle is extremely soluble in water, hence washing 
will remove it; it is also readily dissipated by heat. It has the odour of hydrocyanic acid, and this acid is supposed 
by Henry to exist in the juice. It also contains an acrid, bitter principle. : 
As found in commerce, Tapioca consists of white, irregular grains, of various sizes, which are rough and hard. 
To the taste it is farinaceous and without odour. The granules are irregular in form under the microscope, owing to 
the rupture of the granules and their cohesion by heat when moist. The granules of the powder prepared without 
heat are round, and present at the hilum a cross. In consequence of the rupture of the envelopes of a large number of 
granules, and the escape of the amadine, tapioca is partly soluble in cold water. 
The fecula is coloured blue by iodine. 
Tapioca is imported from the West Indies and from Brazil. It is highly nutritious, forming when boiled with 
water a tremulous, gelatiniform, transparent viscid solution, which is highly demulcent and nutritious, and used as a 
diet in sickness. It is flavoured with wine, spices, or lemon juice. 
Prate LXXXI.—Represents the plant in flower. 
KUPHORBIA IPECACUANHA. 
LINNAUS. 
IPECACUANHA SPURGE. 
Sex. Syst.—Moneecia, Monadelphia. 
in ee er collected in moneecious heads, surrounded by an involucrum, consisting of one leaf, with 
their edical. which have externally five glands alternating with them. Male naked, monandrous, articulated with 
dierinte > ed gee the female which is in the centre. (Involucrum caliciform, eight to ten-toothed, exterior 
Nuttall ‘ *, oa glanduloid, or petaloid. Stamina indefinite, twelve or more, rarely less. Filaments articulated. 
consistin a: naked, solitary . Ovarium stalked. Stigmas three-forked. Fruit hanging out of the involucre, 
Seer os ree cells, bursting at the back with elasticity, and each containing one suspended seed. (Lindley. ) 
sal feet sso. oe age irregular and fleshy, perennial, of a yellowish colour, perpendicular, and penetrating seve- 
wounded are in which it grows ; when mature, from half an inch to an inch and a half in diameter ; when 
the head of the & ie plentifully a thick milk-like tenacious fluid. The stems are numerous, growing in tufts from 
under ground og » procumbent, herbaceous, round, smooth, dichotomously branched, jointed, white or dull green 
obovate lan 1 » green or pale-green above. Leaves inserted at the joints, opposite, sessile, smooth, oval, round, 
: ceolate, or linear. In the spring they are small, but increase in size with the age of the plant; they vary 
in colou | : 
= Dae Roa The flowers are solitary, on long peduncles from the forks of the stem. Calyz 
VOL. I. 
segments. Inner segments or nectaries five, small, gibbous. Stamens numerous, 
10 
