72 ON THE VEGETATION OF MALAYSIA, 



Grinum asiaticum, a bulbous plant with large mostly white 

 flowers in a terminal umbel, is seen on the water-sides of most 

 tropical streams, and by the sea-side in Asia, Africa and Australia. 

 The same may be said of an equally showy plant closely resembling 

 it, named Eurycles amhoinensis. Both belong to the order 

 Amaryllide^. 



Though the cryptogams will be dealt with subsequently, mention 

 may here be made of an aquatic fern, Ceratopteris thalictroidesy 

 with distinct sterile and fertile fronds. The genus is limited to 

 the single species which is widely distributed over the tropical 

 regions of the whole world. The spores of this species are inter- 

 esting to the microscopist as they are marked with curious 

 concentric rings. 



Ataccia cristata is a peculiar-looking plant in the jungle, of 

 which a separate order, the Taccaceje, has been made. The 

 flowers are arranged in umbels at the end of a scape of green and 

 dark purple, with numerous long filaments of sterile pedicels. In 

 the South Seas a kindred plant is cultivated for the starch of the 

 root. The root is red, round, and about three inches in diameter, 

 bitter and acrid, but losing some of this by culture. The raw 

 root is peeled, rasped and washed frequently, when a starch is 

 separated and again washed until the water has no longer an acrid 

 taste. The bitter juice is probably violently poisonous. The 

 meal makes a tasteful, nourishing, gelatinous bread, consisting 

 principally of bassorin. The starch consists of circular or poly- 

 hedral particles with few and not very distinct rings. In Banda 

 it is preferred to sago bread, and generally in the Moluccas is used 

 for cakes and confectionery. The name Tacca is said to be 

 derived from the Malay language, while Royle* says that it is the 

 Tacca-youy of some navigators. The tubers are eaten in China, 

 Cochin China and Travancore. The leaf -stalks and scape, as well 

 as the roots, are boiled for a long time to destroy the aciidity, but 

 even then some vegetable acid is required to make it palatable. 



* *' Illustrations of the Botany of the Himalayan Mountains," p. 378. 



