60 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



five feet high. Maranta is its name. It grows 

 wild in Guiana, but it is cultivated in most tropical 

 countries now, to supply the demand for this form 

 of starch. 



Maranta is a great crop in Bermuda, where the 

 best grade of arrowroot is made. There is but one 

 factory, and here each step of the process of manu- 

 facture is watched, to ensure absolute cleanliness. 

 The tubers are scrubbed clean, then the skin is 

 removed, and the white flesh grated and washed 

 in many waters. The damp air prevents dust, 

 and the water used is caught from rains that fall 

 on the white roofs of coral limestone that cover all 

 Bermuda houses. The more washings, the finer 

 and whiter the starch that settles below the float- 

 ing fibres of the roots. About 15 per cent, of 

 the pulp washed is recovered as pure starch. This 

 is dried under white gauze, in shallow pans. An 

 average crop yields 14,000 pounds of tubers per 

 acre, and the arrowroot sells for about 50 cents a 

 pound in the open market, ten times the price of 

 the same article made carelessly in St. Vincent, 

 West Indies, and grown on soil not so good for the 

 purpose as the coral rock meal of Bermuda, which 

 produces the best possible tubers. 



Neither the pointed rootstocks nor the dart- 

 shaped leaves give the name of arrowroot to 



