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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 



Tig. 229. A Twig and Cluster of Roots of Cassava. (Muoli 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 [Marantacca) 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 



