76 The World's Commercial Products 



so obtained is " pearled " and transformed into the small rounded masses so familiar 

 in this country. 



Some of the Cycads, to which we have already referred under arrowroot, are known as False 

 Sago palms. The illustration on page 69 gives an idea of the habit of this group of 

 plants. 



OTHER STARCHES 



In addition to the foregoing a considerable number and variety of plants are utilised 

 for the local production of starch. In some parts of the West Indies the unripe fruits 

 of the Soursop, an illustration of a fruiting branch of which is given, are employed to prepare 

 a kind of arrowroot. Another fruit, the mango, is similarly used in the unripe condition. 

 Other examples are the Banana, the Plantain, the cocoa-nut palm, and the Palmyra 

 palm. 



The bread-fruit, a handsome tree with large, thick, shining leaves, and fruits of the size 

 of a man's head, yields an excellent starch which can be readily prepared. Samples of 

 bread-fruit starch have recently been received at the Imperial Institute and examined 

 there. The market value of the product in London was- about £7 per ton. 



SUGAR 



Sugar is one of the most valuable products of the plant world. The quantity which comes 

 into commerce annually at the present time is approximately some 10,000,000 tons, of the 

 value of about £180,000,000, regarding sugar as worth, on an average, about 2d. a pound. This 

 enormous amount by no means, however, represents the total sugar crop of the world, because 

 in India and the East generally, in South America, Africa, and elsewhere, there are large 

 quantities of sugar produced for local consumption which do not figure in commercial 

 statistics. It is impossible also to dissociate sugar and alcohol : rum, arrack, palm-wine, 

 and other spirituous liquors are made in different parts of the world from sugar-producing 

 plants, although rum, produced from the sugar-cane, is the only one which enters the world's 

 markets to any extent. Molasses, or treacle, the uncrystallisable residue remaining after the 



JAVA. A FIELD OF YOUNG • SUGAR-CANES 



