124 CUCKOO PINT. 



fering from all the ills of want, should find 

 in it a resoui'ce from starvation. He had 

 tried various methods of preparing it. It 

 had been boiled, baked, or dried in the sun ; 

 but though the acrid principle existing so 

 powerfully in the uncooked root was much 

 dissipated by these means, yet it was not 

 wholly destroyed. He was recommended to 

 grate it into water, and afterwards to pour off 

 the liquid, and dry the sediment. The plan 

 succeeded, and the benevolent inquirer had 

 the satisfaction of procuring a tasteless and 

 nutritious powder from the Arum root. 



The root was much used in Queen Elizabeth's 

 time for stiffening lawn, which w^as then but 

 just introduced, and which, being so thin, 

 needed strong starch to stiffen it. But the 

 Dutch woman who came hither to teach the 

 English ladies how to starch linen, made 

 them so great proficients, that soon the ruffs 

 were worn more than a yard deep. The starch 

 made from the Arum, however, irritated the 

 hands of those who used it. 



