STARCH. 



33 



3. The Marantn arundinacea, or arrow-root plant. 



4. The sago palm. 



5. Several bulbs and tubers, as the 

 onion and potato. 



6. A species of plantain, which 

 offers it so abundantly and in small 

 masses that it was introduced and sold 

 in this country as flour. 



The most interesting illustration of 

 the admixture of deleterious and edible 

 substances is that of the preparation of 

 the Cassava meal, a kind of arrow-root, 

 from the Mandiocca farinha, a tree pos- 

 sessing excellent starch, and, at the 

 same time, the most poisonous juices. 

 Its preparation is thus graphically de- 

 scribed by M. Schleiden : 



" In a dense forest of Guiana the 

 Indian chief has stretched his sleeping 

 mat, between two high stems of the 

 magnolia; he rests indolently smoking 

 beneath the shade of the broad-leaved 

 banana, gazing at the doings of his 

 family around. His wife pounds the 

 gathered mandive roots, with a wooden 

 club, in the hollowed trunk of a tree, 

 and wraps the thick pulp in a com- 

 pact net, made from the tough leaves Fig> 76 The AR MACULATUM, with its cormus, or 



, ,., , root, containing starch. 



of the great lily plants. The long 



bundle is hung upon a stick which rests on two forks, and a heavy stone is fastened to 

 the bottom, the weight of which causes the juice to be pressed out. This runs into 

 a shell of the calabash gourd (Crescentia Cujete) placed beneath. Close by squats a 

 little boy, and dips his father's arrows in the deadly milk, while the wife lights a fire 

 to dry the pressed roots, and by heat to drive off more completely the votalilo poison- 

 ous matter. Next, it is powdered between two stones, and the cassava meal is ready. 

 Meanwhile, the boy has completed his evil task ; the sap, after standing some con- 

 siderable time, has deposited a delicate, white starch, from which the poisonous fluid 

 is poured off. The meal is then well washed with water, and is their fine white tapioca, 

 resembling in every respect arrow-root." Let not our readers be alarmed when they 

 eat their next tapioca pudding; but yet it may be well to remember how closely life and 

 death are associated. 



Starch is met with in two forms : 



First, amorphous; that is in Bne powder, without any distinct form or marking, as 

 in the Salep, commonly sold in this country. 



Secondly, and almost universally in the form of variously-figured cells. 



We have nothing tc add in reference to the former, except that, in common with 

 the other form, it is found inclosed in the large cells of vegetables, as may be seen in the 

 section of the potato (Fig. 83), and that the presence of both alike mar be chemi- 

 TOL. ii. 'D 



