INDIAN TURNIP. 85 



starchy powder, similar to Arrow-root, and is prepared iiiueli in the 

 same way as potato starcii. The pulp, alter heing ground or 

 pounded, is thrown into clean water and stirred; the water, after 

 settling, is poured oil', and the white sediment is again suhmitted 

 to the same j)rocess until it ])ecomes (piite pure, and is then dried. 

 A pound of this starch may be made from a peck of the roots. 

 The roots should be dried in sand before using. Thus |)urined ami 

 divested of its poisonous (pialities, the powder so j)roc ured becomes 

 a [)leasant and valuable article of food, and is sold under the name 

 of Portland Sago, or Portland Arrow-root. 



When deprived of the poisonous acrid juices that pervade 

 them, all our known species may be rendered valuable both as 

 food and medicine: but thev should not be em|)loved without care 

 and experience. The writer remend^ers, not many years ago, 

 several children being i)oisoned by the leaves of Arum triphyllum 

 bein"- fathered and eaten as "reens, in one of the earlv-settled 

 back townships of Western Canada. The same deplorable accident 

 happened by ignorant persons gathering the leaves of the Ahni- 

 drakc or May Apple {PodophjUum pfdtatam). 



There seems in the vegetable world, as well as in the moral, 

 two opposite principles, the good and the evil. The gracious God 

 has given to man the power, ])y the cultivation of his intellect, to 

 elicit the good and useful, separating it from the vile and injurious, 

 thus turning that into a blessing which would otherwise be a curse. 



" The Arum ftimily possess many valuable medicinal qualities," 

 says Dr. Charles Lee, in his valuable work on the medicinal plants 



