220 SELECTED ARTICLES. 
the Isle of Bouron, one of the Moluccas, from the medulla of 
the sagus Rumphii. According to this naturalist, when the 
fresh separated fecula of the medulla is agitated with water, 
it is precipitated under the form of grains of a yellowish 
white colour. Its weight, compared with that of water by 
means of a standard vessel, was yV/o-; 500 grains absorbed 
544 of water, very nearly doubling the volume. By desicca- 
tion the primitive characters were regained, except the colour, 
which appeared lighter. 
The maceratum was not altered by reagents, except the 
nitrate of silver,, which formed a light precipitate with the 
chloride. The extract weighed three grains and a half; it was 
of a deep brown colour, slightly deliquescent, and contained 
more common salt than the others. 
Rose-coloured Sago. 
This variety is easily recognised by its uniform rosy gray 
tint, the minuteness of its grains, the largest of which are not 
more than a millimetre in diameter; it is, moreover, after the 
sago of New Guinea, the hardest yet examined. Its weight, 
compared with that of water, was jVoV; 500 grains absorbed 
652 grains of water, its volume becoming doubled. 
Reagents had no effect upon its maceratum, which by eva- 
poration was reduced to an extract of a rose tint, taste stale, 
slightly saline, and in weight three grains. This sago, for 
several years has been much sought for by consumers, and it 
has a reputation which it shares with the white, the last that 
remains for us to study. 
White Sago. 
M. Planche thinks he can assert, upon the faith of M. Mar- 
chand, that this sago really comes from the Moluccas, and 
further, it appears to him very probable that it is nothing else 
than the Maputi sago, the whitest and most esteemed in Am- 
boyna, — according to Rumphius and M. Lesson. Its weight, 
compared with that of water, was yVoV' ^00 grains ab- 
sorbed 820 of this fluid, the volume becoming tripled. After 
