THE TARO ROOT. 
89 
replanting tlie small ancl useless tuTjers^ its quantity lias 
veiy much diminisheth 
The Caladium esculeutura, au aquatic plant^ furnislies 
the targe Tai-o roots which, boiled to a thick paste, foim 
the chief food of the Sandwich Islanders, and are exten- 
Bively cultivated in many other groups of the South Seas. 
It grows like rice on a marshy ground, the large sagittated 
leaves rise on high foot-stalks, immediately ppringing from 
the root, and are likewise very agreeable to the taste, 
but are more seldom eaten, as they are used for propa- 
gation. Severed from the root, they merely require to be 
planted in the mud to produce after six months a new- 
harvest of roots. The growth is so abnndiuib that 1500 
persons can live upon the produce of a single square mile, 
so that supposing the United Kingdom to be one vast 
taro-field, its surface would be able to nourish about two 
thousand millions of souls. 
As there is a mountain-rice which thrives without 
artificial irrigation, there is also a mountain-taro wlilch 
resembles the former in general appearance, but pre- 
fers a more dry and elevated soil. Although the plant 
grows wild both iu the Society and Marquesas Islands, 
yet Pitcaim'a Island was the only spot where Mr. Bennett 
saw it cultivated. 
But the possession of a plaut which furnishes so much 
food with so little labour can hardly bo considered as 
a benefit for the Sandwich Islanders, whose natural 
indolence is too much encouraged by the abnndance it 
creates. The Hawaiian constantly sees before his eyes 
the coffee-grovea and sugar-plantations, the cotton and 
indigo fields, which, cultivated by Chinese coolies, amply 
rewai-d the enterprise of the European and American 
settlers in his native land, and yet he saunters by, too 
indolent even to stretch out his hand and gather the 
berries from the trees. 
It may easily be imagined that the tropical sun, which 
distils so many costly juices and fiery spices in indescrib- 
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