I3i 



Andropogon odoratus the Usadhana, produces a yellow oil with 

 a scent of cassia and rosemary. It is a native of Phana in India, 

 but little seems to be known of it. 



The whole paper which is illustrated by a figure of the Lemon- 

 grass in flower is well worthy of the attention of planters and 

 consumers and manufacturers of grass oils. 



H. N. R. 



CYANOGENESIS IN PLANTS 



The researches on this important subject are being continued by 

 Professor Dunstan, Dr. Henry and Dr. Auld, and we have 

 received a continuation -published in the proceedings of the Royal 

 Society dealing with the production of the cyanogenetic glucoside, 

 Phaseolunatin in the common flax and also in Tapioca. There are 

 two kinds of Tapioca-plants known and used to provide the starch 

 known as Tapioca, Manioc, Cassava Mandioca and by other names, 

 of these one is known to be intensely poisonous unless cooked. 

 This is the bitter Cassava. It has long been cultivated in Singapore 

 in the Botanic Gardens and is a very distinct looking narrow leaved 

 Plant. It is the manihot utilissima of Botanis s. This bitter Cassava 

 is the only kind used in South America at least in Pernambuco, as 

 the natives did not care about the sweet Cassava. It is there the 

 staple food of the country and is eaten in a variety of ways. The 

 roots are rasped and then ground up to a fine flour, and sea Wed 

 with boiling water, which destroys the glucoside and makes the tood 

 harmless. It is eaten in the form of this powdered stuff and more 

 resembles sawdust than any thing else, or boiling gravy is poured 

 °*er it and it is made into a mass like pease pudding or scalded 

 and rolled out into thin white sheets it is eaten as bread, and this 

 torm is known par excellence as tapioca. 



This bitter Cassava has never found favour with the oriental 

 races. It was frequently distributed to various planters from the 

 Botanic Gardens in times gone by but never came into cultivation, 

 and there are probably very few plants in the Peninsula. The sweet 

 J-assava has been regarded as a cultivated form of this bitter one, 

 ?/°« L * Brazilian botanist regarded it as distinct in which he is 

 undoubtedly right and named it Manihot Aipi although this the 

 cotnrn 0n tapioca of the East does contain the glucoside it is chiefly 



n [he rind of the root and not dispersed through the whole root as 



an ul er Cassava > and is in such sma11 q uantities that * is harm ltt s ; 



*Y the cooking of the roots or flower destroys the little poison that 



H. N R 



