OF THE POTATOE. 423 
phi, Cycas Circinalis, and Phenix Farinifera, 
and in South America, the fan palm Mawritia 
Flexuosa, with many others. The Sagus Rum- 
phii, one of the smallest palm trees which seldom 
exceeds thirty feet in height, has yielded in its 
fifteenth year, 600lbs. of sago. Captain Sir 
Edward Belcher, in his “ Narrative of a Voyage 
Round the World,” recently published, states, 
that the sago tree, which at Amboina, Bouro, 
Ceram, and adjacent Islands grows most luxuri- 
antly, and attains a large size, eighteen inches 
in diameter, is calculated to subsist a family for 
one month, or even six weeks. Mr. Crawford, 
(Ind. Archip.) expresses himself in similar terms. 
The quantity of starch and gluten also vary in 
the same kind of potatoe. When the tuber is 
fresh gathered, it is more abundant than when 
stored up for use. The starch diminishes in 
spring, when germination commences, being con- 
verted into sugar, in order to afford the bud that 
nutriment which it afterwards derives when more 
fully grown, from the soil by the agency of its 
roots, and from the air by its leaves, as they 
become developed. 
The following experiments were made when 
the tuber was fresh from the field : 
