TAPIOCA. 151 



This root consists of a tuber of a peculiar form, and contains 

 a large proportion of fecula ; the stem is upwards of three 

 feet high, and the flowers are white, delicate, and small. 

 In Cayenne the tubers are eaten by the natives, roasted, as 

 a cure for intermittent fevers, and when bruised, are 

 applied by them to wounds, and considered more especially 

 as a specific against those caused by poisoned arrows, hence 

 the name of Arrow-root." 



According to Dr. Livingstone, the inhabitants of Angola 

 live almost exclusively upon the Tapioca plant. He thus 

 describes the mode of preparing it, &c. : "They (speaking 

 of the half-caste Portuguese) subsist chiefly on the Manioc, 

 and as that can be eaten either raw, roasted, or boiled, as it 

 comes from the ground, or fermented in water and then 

 roasted or dried after fermentation and baked, or pounded 

 or rasped into meal and cooked as farina, or made into 

 confectionery with butter and sugar, it does not so soon 

 pall upon the palate as one might imagine when told that it 

 constitutes their principal food. The leaves, boiled, make 

 an excellent vegetable for the table, and when eaten by 

 goats, their milk is much increased. The wood is a good 

 fuel, and yields a large quantity of potash. . . . The root, 

 rasped while raw, placed upon a cloth, and rubbed with the 

 hands while water is poured upon it, parts with its starchy 

 glutinous matter, and this, when it settles at the bottom of 

 the vessel and the water is poured off, is placed in the sun 

 till nearly dry to form tapioca, the process of drying is 

 completed on an iron plate over a slow fire, the mass being 

 stirred meanwhile with a stick ; when dry, it appears agglu- 

 tinated into little globules, and is in the form we see in the 

 tapioca of commerce." 



Although none of this family of plants produce building 

 timber (according to our notions of that article), yet it is 

 questionable whether we have a greater number of uses for 

 our exogenous woods than are found by the natives of those 

 countries where the Endogense abound for palm stems and 

 bamboo canes ; as the Grecian styles of architecture arose 

 from the imitation of structures of timber, so the Hindoo 

 and Chinese styles have arisen from imitation of bamboo 



