NEW EDIBLE ROOTS. 179 



and people, many of which would not be very acceptable to the dainty 

 palates of Englishmen. Very few of the coarse fibrous yams, for instance, 

 would find favour with those used to the mealy potato. The root of the 

 common carraway plant, when improved by culture, resembles the parsnip, 

 and is used as food by the inhabitants of the North of Europe. 



Many of the water-plantain tribe have a fleshy rooting stem which is 

 eatable. At the root-stock of the arrowhead (Sagittaria sagiltifolia) there 

 is a tuber composed almost entirely of starch. The fecula of these tubercles 

 Martius compares to arrowroot. The Calmucks, the Chinese, and the 

 Japanese eat these as articles of wholesome food. By the two latter the 

 plant is cultivated for these tubercles. From the bulbous roots of the caco- 

 mite, a species of Tigridia, a good flour is prepared in Mexico. 



The roots of several species of Caladium are nutritious, and fur- 

 nish an abundance of food. The very large roots of C. esculentum and 

 C. arbor es cens especially furnish a great quantity of fecula. Several 

 species of Arum, the same family which furnishes the indigenous 

 Portland arrowroot, formerly held in some repute, are eaten in different 

 countries. A. indicum is much cultivated in Brazil, about the huts of 

 the natives, for its esculent stem and pendulous tuber. The roots of 

 Arisarum vidgare are boiled and eaten in the South of Europe. 

 AmorpliopTiallus campanulatus is extensively cultivated in the Northern 

 Circars, India, for its roots, which are highly nutritious. The roots 

 of Colocasia microrhiza, a native of the Moluccas and the South Sea 

 Islands, are very large, and when washed to deprive them of their 

 acid principle, are eaten in Tahiti. Colocasia escidenta grows in Spain, 

 Portugal, Sardinia, and particularly in Egypt, where it has been 

 cultivated from time immemorial for its roots, which serve as an article of 

 food. They contain an immense quantity of fecula, and are eaten by the 

 inhabitants of Egypt and some parts of India as potatoes, forming the 

 principal food of the inhabitants ; their flavour is like that of potatoes. The 

 roots of C. himalensis form the principal part of the food of the hill people 

 of the Himalayas. The bay root, which grows about the out-islands 

 of the Bahamas group, was found of great use as a food plant 

 to the inhabitants of Long Island during a scarcity of food occasioned 

 by the drought of 1843. The root grows in the form of a large beet, and 

 is from twelve to sixteen inches in length. It is entirely farinaceous, and 

 when properly ground and prepared makes excellent bread. The bulbous 

 roots of Orniihogalum umbellatum have been commonly eaten in Italy, in 

 Syria, and the neighbouring countries. Dioscorides says that it was some- 

 times dried, pulverised, and mixed with corn flour ; and that it was also 

 eaten both raw and washed. Lamerteus, in his " Essay on Bulbous and 

 Tuberous Roots," states that in his time the peasants of Italy and the 

 neighbouring countries often roasted the roots of the Ornithogahim, and eat 

 them like chestnuts, or lightly boiled them, and peeled and used them as 

 salad, with oil, vinegar, and pepper. 



The French have been much more zealous than we have in this inquiry 



n2 



