30 THE USES OF PLANTS. 



October, 1887, when Bermuda Arrowroot was priced 

 is. to is. 3d.* Natal Arrowroot, the product of 

 Maranta arundinacea, was first imported in 1853, 

 rising to 13,336 worth in 1859, but now averaging 

 between 2,000 and 3,000. The Durban selling 

 price in 1886 was about 363. per cwt.-f- 



TAPIOCA has long been prepared in Brazil, Peru, 

 Guiana, Africa, and Penang, from the large tubers 

 of the Euphorbiaceous Manihot utilissima, Pohl, and 

 M. Aipi, Pohl; the former Bitter, the latter Sweet 

 Cassava. Tapioca mainly differs from Brazilian 

 Arrowroot in having undergone a partial conversion 

 into dextrine by being dried upon hot-plates, instead 

 of in the sun. The boiled juice of the Cassava, 

 known as ' Cassareep,' is used in many table sauces. J 



SAGO, the demand for which, in the finely granu- 

 lated form in which the Malays send it to market, 

 has steadily increased, is obtained from the stems of 

 various Palms, especially Metroxylon Rumphii, Mart, 

 and M. lave, Mart., which are cultivated in the island 

 of Ceram, in Borneo, and at Sarawak. Inferior kinds 

 are derived from the Gomuti palm (Arenga sacchari- 

 fera> Lab.), the Kittool palm (Caryota urens, L.), the 

 Cabbage palm (Corypha umbraculifera, L.), from C. 

 Gebanga, Bl., Raphia flabelliformis, L., Phoenix farini- 

 fera, Roxb., and Metroxylon filare. Mart., in the East 

 Indies, and from Mauritia flexuosa, L. fil., and 

 Gttilielma speciosa, Mart., in South America. The 



* ' Encyclopaedia Britannica/ loc. cit. ' Pharmac. Journ.' ser. 

 iii., vol. vi (1875), P- 20 4 J v l- v " C 1 ^?^)? P- l &9- 



f 'Official Handbook for Natal' (Colonial and Indian Exhibi- 

 tion), p. 84. 



I ' Guide to Ke\v Museum,' p. 148. 



