12 Southwest Museum Leaflets 



important food for the Indians, who planted it in their fields 

 and cultivated it. 



The plant was early introduced into Europe, where it is 

 raised in considerable quantities. In places it is called sun- 

 flower-artichoke, as it is a species of sunflower. The Italian 

 word for sunflower is girasolc (jeer-ah-so -lay) , and by a 

 surprising corruption this is rendered Jerusalem. 



Tapioca — A deadly poisonous plant is bitter manioc; but 

 back of its poison is great food value. How the Indians knew 

 this is still another of the unsolved achievements of the ab- 

 origines. They developed the technique of grating the large 

 roots and pressing out the poisonous juice, and producing 

 tapioca, cassava bread, and Brazilian arrowroot. 



Manioc, or more accurately manihot, is the native name of 

 the plant in Brazil, where probably it was developed. There 

 are two maniocs, the bitter and the sweet. The latter is not 

 poisonous, but is not grown in the main area. Bitter cassava 

 is one of the names of the plant, cassava being the Spanish 

 form of the Taino (Tai'-no) Indian word cassaii. Tapioca 

 is a native Brazilian word meaning "juice removed". The 

 word arrowroot has an interesting history; originally it meant 

 a root used to absorb poison from a wound inflicted by a 

 poisoned arrow. 



Manioc has been transplanted into Africa and the Malay 

 archipelago, where it is a large and important crop. Its pre- 

 Columbian distribution was from the middle of South America 

 northward to Cuba and Central America. 



Quinine — De Soto's death probably was due to malarial 

 fever, which some Indians would have known enough to cure 

 by using quinine. Quinine comes from a bark named cinchona, 

 after Countess Ana of Chinchon, wife of the Spanish viceroy 

 of Peru, whose life was saved in 163 8 by quinine obtained 

 from an Indian. The word quinine itself comes from a Spanish 

 corruption of the Indian term quinquina, in the Quechua 

 tongue, the language of the Incas. 



The method of getting the cinchona bark was to cut down 

 the trees, which grew in the forests of Columbia, Ecuador, 

 Peru, and Bolivia. In 18 54 the Dutch government obtained 

 several hundred trees, which were planted in Java and have 

 resulted in almost a monopoly of quinine. 



Maple Syrup — Not only in Vermont, but northward into 

 Canada, westward into Minnesota, southward into Florida, 



