150 TACCACEjE. [Endogens. 



Found in damp maritime places and woods in the hotter parts of India, the South 

 Sea Islands, and the tropical parts of Africa. 



" The plants of this family are possessed of some degree of acridity, both in their 

 tubers and in their herbaceous parts, as Rumphius informs us that the tubers of T. 

 jiiimatinda, dubia, and montana are rasped and macerated for four or five days in water, 

 and a fecula is separated in the same manner that sago is, and like it employed as an 

 article of diet by the inhabitants of the Malayan and Molucca Islands. In Otaheite and 

 other Society Islands, they make cakes of the meal of the tubers of T. pinnatifida, which 

 are the Tacca youy of some navigators ; they form an article of diet in China and 

 Cochin China, as also in Travancore, where Dr. Ainslie informs me they attain a large 

 size, and that the natives eat them with some acid to subdue the acrimony." — Royle. 



GENERA. 

 Tacca, .For**. | Ataccia, Pral. 



Numbers. Gen. 2. Sp. 8. 



Orontiacece. 



Position Taccacejs. — Bromeliacese. 



Aracecs. 





Gardner was of opinion that Trichopodium should be transferred from Birthworts 

 to this order, a further indication of the natural affinity of the latter to either 

 Endogens or Rhizogens. 





