Occasional Notes. 
Sir R. Schombur^k on the /Eta Palm. — The following 
is an extra6l from a report of a meeting of the British 
Association held at Cambridge, commencing on the 
18th of June, 1845, which appeared in the " Gardener's 
Chronicle" for the 5th of July 1845, P- 45§- 
■' Sir Robert SCHOMBURGK then read a Description 
of the Murichi or Ita Palm of Guiana, of which the 
following is an abstract : — 
" The author referred to the early accounts which naturalists in Europe 
received of this beautiful Palm, of which Sir Walter Raleigh appears to 
have brought the first fruits to Europe. Clusius, in his " Exotic Flora" 
describes it as fructus clegantissimns squamosus similis palmce-pini ; 
and Father Gumilla, Gili, and the elder authors on Guiana, extol it in 
consequence of the various uses the aborigines of Guiana make of it. 
It serves at different stages of its growth as a vegetable, and furnishes 
a cabbage equal to the Palmetto ; at the maturity of its fruits, they 
are eaten, as well in their natural state as prepared into a drink, which, 
when drunk copiously proves inebriating. It is remarkable that when 
much use is made of the fruit it communicates to the linen a yellow 
colour after perspiration. The trunk is tapped and a fluid flows from it 
which possesses much saccharine matter. Of the greatest delicacy is 
however the saccharine liquor extracted from the unexpanded flower, 
which affords a liquor resembling champagne in its briskness. The 
Indians prepare from the pith of its trunk a flour resembling 
that of Sagus farinifera, Which the Warrow Indians call Ani* ; 
mixed as a pap it is considered to be an excellent remedy for dysen- 
tery. The fan-shaped leaves are used as a thatch for covering their 
houses, and the stump of one of these leaves serves as a broom to 
sweep it with. The Indians of the savannahs and mountainous trafts 
use the base of the half-sheathing leaves for making sandals. The 
* The flour which they procure from the arrowroot is called Aru-Aru 
and our denomination, arrowroot, is most likely derived from the Indian 
word. 
Q 
