I THE TRAVELLER-TREE OF MADAGASCAR 175 



lest musselin, and the coarse fibres of the Musa textilis, which 

 e known in trade under the name of Avaca or Manilla hemp, 

 rve for the preparation of very durable cordage. 

 To the same family belongs also the traveller-tree of Mada- 

 gascar {Ravenala speciosa), one of those wonderful sources of 

 refreshment which nature has provided for the thirsty wanderer 

 in the wilderness. The foot-stalks of the elliptical^ alternate 

 leaves embrace the trunk with broad sheathes, in which the dew 

 trickling from their surface is collected. The hollow baobab, the 

 pitcher-plant, the juicy cactuses, the nara, all answer a similar 

 purpose, and it is impossible to say which of them is most to be 

 admired, or which most evinces the goodness and wisdom of the 

 Creator. 



Life and death are strangely blended in the Cassava or Man- 

 dioca root {Jatropha Maiiihot) ; the juice a rapidly destructive 

 poison, the meal a nutritious and agreeable food, which, in tro- 

 pical America, and chiefly in Brazil, forms a great part of the 

 people's sustenance. The height to which the cassava attains 

 varies from four to six feet : it rises by a slender, woody, knotted 

 stalk, furnished with alternate palmated leaves, and springs from 

 a tough branched woody root, the slender collateral fibres of 

 which swell into those farinaceous parsnip-like masses, for which 

 alone the plant is cultivated. It requires a dry soil, and is 

 not found at a greater elevation than 2000 feet above the 

 level of the sea. It is propagated by cuttings, which very 

 quickly take root, and in about eight months from the time of 

 their being planted, the tubers will generally be in a fit state 

 to be collected ; they may, however, be left in the ground for 

 many months without sustaining any injury. The usual mode 

 of preparing the cassava is to grind the roots after pealing off the 

 dark-coloured rind, to draw out the poisonous juice, and finally 

 to bake the meal into thin cakes on a hot iron hearth. Fortu- 

 nately the deleterious principle is so volatile as to be entirely 

 dissipated by exposure to heat ; for when the root has been cut 

 into small jDieces, and exposed during some hours to the direct 

 rays of the sun, cattle may be fed on it with perfect safety. 

 If the recently extracted juice be drunk by cattle or poultry, 

 the animals soon die in convulsions, but if this same liquid is 

 boiled with meat and seasoned, it forms a wholesome and 



