§£#? ^^H • ipfc 



171. 



THE MANDJOC. 



this subject is particularly interesting may be 

 referred to the well-known work which I have 

 consulted.* 



THE MANDIOC PLANTS. 



The mandioc requires good land, and the 

 same spot will not produce two crops succes- 

 sively ; it must be allowed to rest for one or two 

 years or more. The operation of planting it is 

 simple, and diners in no respect from that which 

 was practised formerly by the Indians.! The 

 flour which is made from this root is called 

 farinha de pao, or stick-flower, t There are seve- 

 ral species of the mandioc plant, of which some 

 are adapted to high lands, and others to low 



* Edwards's History of the West-Indies. 



f History of Brazil, vol. i. p. 233. 



J Mr. Southey says, " When the mandioc failed, what 

 was called stick-flour (in Portuguese farinha de pao) was 

 made from the wood of the Urucuri-iba, which they cut in 

 pieces and bruised ; and this being less liable to corrupt than 

 the mandioc, is now generally used in the Brazilian ships.*' 

 Vol. i. p. 233. The farinha dr pan which is at present us< <! 

 in these ships, is made from the mandioc, and the name of 

 stick-flour is by no means inapposite ; for it always requires 

 to be picked before it is used, to take out the bits of the 

 husk and of the hardened fibres of the root which may chance 

 to remain. But the name may have, and most probably did, 

 commence with the stick-flour of the Urucuri-iba ; and when 

 the substance from which it was made was changed, the 

 name still continued. I refer the reader to the History ot 

 Brazil for a farther account of the mandioc. 



