INDIAN ARROW-HOOT. 163 



in large wooden mortars. This pulpy substance is 

 next thrown into a large proportion of clean water, 

 and after the whole has been agitated for some time 

 the fibrous parts are collected in the hand, squeezed, 

 and rejected. The milky liquor which remains is 

 a mixture of the starch with water, and this, after 

 being strained through a hair sieve to separate such 

 fibrous particles as have escaped before, is left for 

 some time to settle, when the water is drained off. 

 The white pasty mass remaining at the bottom is 

 then again washed in a further portion of water, 

 and allowed to subside as before ; and this process 

 is sometimes repeated a third time, and oftener 

 even by persons who wish to be exceedingly nice 

 in preparing the powder. When this is considered 

 to be sufficiently cleansed, it is dried on clean 

 white cloths in the sun, and is then fit for con- 

 sumption ; it will keep for a very considerable length 

 of time. 



Other plants have been proposed as substitutes 

 for the exotic above described. Among these the 

 arum macttlatum, or common wake-robin, has 

 been mentioned. This plant grows wild in woods 

 and on 'shady banks in many parts of Great 

 Britain. 



In its natural state the arum maculatum is ex- 

 ceedingly acrid, so that if a small piece of the 

 leaf be chewed, it produces a painful stinging sen- 

 sation in the mouth, and by applying the juice 

 of the raw tuber to the skin, this will be con- 

 siderably blistered. The noxious quality here men- 

 tioned, like to that inherent in the cassava root, is, 

 however, extremely volatile, and if the root be either 

 roasted or boiled, and afterwards dried and pounded, 

 it affords a starchy substance which is perfectly in- 

 sipid, and may be used for the same purposes as the 

 powder of the true arrow-root. 



