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who say that it is good for sick people, and looks, when prepared, 

 very different from the arrow-root of the shops. I have compared it 

 with Bermuda arrow-root, and find that it does not make either so 

 clear or firm a jelly, but is perfectly inodorous, tasteless, and destitute 

 of colour. The granules, when viewed under the microscope, appear 

 of an irregular spherical shape, varying much in size ; but are, on au 

 average, much smaller than ordinary starches, except rice-starch. 

 The hilum is not very distinctly marked, appearing plainly only in 

 the larger granules. The Portland arrow-root is, I believe, only made 

 in the Isle of Portland. Although there is an abundance of the Arum 

 on some of the commons near Weymouth, yet the country people do 

 not appear to know that it is of any use. This will doubtlessly appear 

 strange to those unacquainted with Portland ; but, when we consider 

 that, until within a few years, the Portlanders have kept themselves, 

 as much as possible, aloof from the rest of the world, even forsaking 

 their friends who dared to marry out of the island, and not permitting 

 a stranger to settle amongst them, we can no longer wonder that they 

 have kept their knowledge to themselves. They are probably a race 

 of entirely distinct origin from the inhabitants of the mainland. 

 Even now they use words which are not understood by us. This 

 arrow-root has been prepared by them from time immemorial ; and it 

 is very probable that, living on a barren island, and depending prin- 

 cipally on fish, they may have been compelled by necessity, at some 

 time, to seek subsistence by preparing the corms for food. It is a 

 singular fact, that the plant is called arrow-root by the Islanders, 

 perhaps from its sagittate leaves ; may not the Maranta arundinacea 

 have derived its English name from the previously known and appre- 

 ciated arrow-root of the Isle of Portland ? " 



Specimens of the Portland arrow-root, and some fresh corras of the 

 Arum maculatum, sent by Mr. Groves, were laid on the table. 

 . The President thought that it was much more probable, that the 

 name arrow-root, as applied to the fecula obtained from the Maranta 

 arundinacea, was derived from the circumstance of the pulp of its 

 corm having been formerly applied, by the natives of the West-India 

 Islands, to wounds inflicted by poisoned arrows. 



Mr. Penney read an interesting paper on ' The place which Botany 

 should occupy in the Studies of the Pharmaceutist.' 



The President then said that, as this was the last meeting of the 

 session, he could not but congratulate the members upon the great 

 success which had hitherto attended them. He hoped that, during 



