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. , 0 
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 Botani? 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 scalded 
with boiling water, which destroys the glucoside and makes the food 
harmless. It is eaten in the form of this powdered stuff and more 
resembles sawdust than any thing else, or boiling gravy is poured 
over 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 
form 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 
Cassava has been regarded as a cultivated form of this bitter one, 
but POIIL a Brazilian botanist regarded it as distinct in which he is 
undoubtedly right and named it Manihot Aipi although this the 
common tapioca of the East does contain the glucoside it is chiefly 
in the rind of the root and not dispersed through the whole root as 
in bitter Cassava, and is in such small quantities that it is harmless, 
and the cooking of the roots or flower destroys the little poison that 
is left. 
WO 
H. N. R. 
