ARROWROOT-YIELDING PLANT. 143 



by Mr. Woodrow, of the Poona College of Science ; the produce 

 is stated to be at the rate of 9 tons of fresh root per acre. When 

 manufactured by unskilled hands this gives 2,822*41bs., or 14 per 

 cent, of pure arrowroot per ticre. One of the agricultural students, 

 Mr. R. S. Joshi, has lately invented a wooden machine which 

 reduces the cost of preparing arrowroot by almost 8 per cent. The 

 machine is still capable of great improvement, but its chief merit 

 is that any village carpenter can make it. 



Arrowroot of all kinds is a favourite article of diet among: the 

 natives, especially for children. The milk-men in Bombay use it to 

 thicken milk which has been watered. — Dymock. Curcuma 

 angustifoUa. Roxb. Tavakhirl (Bomb.) Tickar (Hind.) — This 

 is an annual plant, springing up at the beginning of the 

 rains. Bulbs with oblong tubers hanging from the fibres. Leaves 

 narrow, lanceolate, petioled, striated, with fine longitudinal lines, 

 from one to two-and-a-half feet long ; petioles, 6-10 inch long; spike 

 radical, 4-6 inch long ; crowned with a coma of purple bracts ; flowers 

 yellow, large, expanding in the morning and fading at sunset. 



It grows wild in various parts of India, Travancore, Nagpore, &c. 

 and in the Bombay Presidency at Ramghat. This species is said 

 to yield portion of what is called Travancore arrowroot. There is 

 no doubt that Curcuma arrowroot (known in Bombay as Tavakhir, 

 tickar in the other presidencies, and to Europeans as East Indian 

 arrowroot) is manufactured in Southern India especially in Cochin, 

 Travancore and Kanara, but in a very rude manner, the granules 

 much resembling those of Maranta arundinacea ; in fact what is called 

 tickar arrowroot is often the produce of the latter plant, or curcuma 

 starch mixed with that of cassava or tapioca plant, the manhihot 

 being much cultivated at Travancore. Malabar arrowroot fetches 

 from Rs. 3 to Rs. 4 per quarter cwt. in Bombay. Drury (useful 

 plants of India, p. 176) -says : — "An excellent kind of arrowroot is 

 prepared from the tuber of this species (C. angustifoUa) , especially 

 in Travancore, where the plant grows in great abundance." This 

 is a favourite article of diet among the natives. The flour, when 

 finely powdered and boiled in milk, is an excellent diet for sick 

 people or children. It is also much used for cakes, puddings, &c. 

 though considered by some to produce constipation. In a commer- 

 cial point of view the East Indian arrowroot is below the West 

 Indian starch, though similar in its qualities and uses. The exports 

 of arrowroot from Travancore average about 250 candies annually/' 



