334 ESSENTIALS OF BOTANY 
Tapioca consists mainly of starch. It is made from the 
grated or ground-up roots of the cassava plant (Fig. 229), 
a native of Brazil, now cultivated in many of the warmer 
parts of the world, including our own Gulf States. The 
clustered roots may together weigh as much as thirty 
pounds, and the product per acre is therefore very large. 
The juice of one species is acrid and poisonous, but is 
Fig. 229. A Twig and Cluster of Roots of Cassava. (Much reduced.) 
soon removed by heating or merely drying the ground 
roots, which form an extremely valuable food for horses, 
cattle, and hogs. 
Arrowroot is a highly digestible kind of starch obtained 
from the rootstocks of several kinds of tropical plants of 
the Arrowroot family (Marantacew) and other families. 
Sugar is manufactured from the juice of the sugar-cane 
(Fig. 230), a grass growing to the height of ten feet or 
more, cultivated in Louisiana, the West Indies, Java, and 
