ARROWROOT- YIELDING PLANTS, 141 



as Chowar. It maybe described thus:~~Root size of an orange, 

 sometimes larger, with large oblong tubers, white inside, pendulous 

 from the fibers. Radical leaves almost opposite, sheathing, short- 

 petioled, oblong lanceolate, 12-20 by 3-4 in., upper leaves alternate 

 frequently tinged with a beautiful red; scape central leafy, 3 feet 

 high. Bracts green, calyx white, and corolla yellow. 



It is from the roots of this curcuma that the Chinese ticket-of-leave 

 men and a native of Goa, Mr. DeCosta, for many years used to manufac- 

 ture arrowroot and sell it to the Commissariat and in the bazaars of 

 Bombay. Dr. McConaghy says that, in 1878, a European prepared a 

 few hundred pounds of it and sent samples to be tried by Messrs. 

 Treacher and Co., Phillips and Co., and Kemp and Co. Its colour 

 and taste were pronounced good, but it was found to be deficient in 

 nutritive properties. That it is inferior to West-Indian arrowroot 

 may be gathered from its market value, 5 to 6 lbs. to the rupee. 

 During the famine of 1877, it was recommended to the suffering 

 poor, but they never used it except in extreme scarcity. 



The process of preparing arrowroot at Mahableshwar is simple. 

 The root (of which a cooly will gather four or five large basketsful a 

 day, for as many annas) is scraped, washed and rubbed to pulp on a 

 grater, as mortars are found to crush the globules. The pulp 

 is then washed with cold water, and the fecula allowed about 

 ten pr twelve hours to settle ; the supernatant fluid is then decanted, 

 the sediment stirred with the addition of fresh water and again 

 allowed to settle. The whole process is repeated above twelve 

 times, till the dark scum and the muddiness of the washings slowly 

 disappear and the sediment is pure white, when it is allowed to 

 harden into a cake, which is afterwai'ds reduced to powder. A bas- 

 ketful of roots yields 3 — -41bs. of pure arrowroot. Curcuma caulina 

 flowers at about the end of September. I had planted in pots 

 during the last monsoon tubers which I had brought from Maha- 

 bleshwar, and with which I intended to illustrate my paper, which 

 was meant to be read at the last October meeting. Having, 

 however, been informed by the Honorary Secretary that the Society 

 had resolved to hold, as it did, a fruit exhibition that month, I left 

 Bombay soon after, and my plants had withered when I returned 

 in the early part of December. 



The arrowroot, a specimen of which I have exhibited though 

 made in a rough manner, is white, and like other kinds of arrowroot 

 insipid and inodorous. Examined under the microscope in a drop 



