IP4 



'" -c t Poison-plants. 



28. When the sugar-cane is cut it is taken to the mill, 

 where it is crushed between large rollers. The juice is then 

 heated in large pans or boilers ; then it is transferred into 

 coolers, and the molasses is drained off from the sugar, 

 which is of a dark brown color. After this the sugar goes 

 through a process called refining, which produces loaf 

 and refined sugars and syrup. 



29. Maple sugar and syrup are obtained by first boil- 

 ing and then cooling the sap of the sugar-maple tree. A 

 hole is bored into the tree and a tube is inserted, through 

 which the sap trickles out and falls into a pail or other 

 vessel. 



30. The plants that poison us are -very cu- 

 rious. Some men are dreadfully poisoned if 

 they merely pass near some of them. Other 

 men can handle these same plants without 

 being at all affected by them. There is one 

 tree in the West Indies from which, if the 

 rain drips upon a man's skin, huge blotches are 

 raised up immediately. Some of these poison 

 plants kill us quietly, sending numbness all 

 through our bodies, and others kill us with 

 terrible convulsions. 



31. There is one very curious plant that poi- 

 sons us or nourishes us, according to the part we 

 take. It is called the manioc, or cassava. It 

 grows usually to the height of six or eight feet. 

 Its roots are very large, sometimes weighing 

 thirty pounds, and growing from three to eight 

 in a cluster, usually from a foot to two feet long. 



