ON  PORTLAND  ARROW-ROOT. 
559 
sent,  yet  its  manufacture  was  never  of  much  importance  ;  it  is  now 
almost  extinct,  and  the  arrow-root  never  seen  out  of  the  island  ex- 
cept in  the  hands  of  the  curious.  From  my  inquiries  I  have  learned, 
that  many  years  ago  it  was  customary  to  crop  the  land  only  every 
other  year,  allowing  it  to  remain  fallow  in  the  intervening  period, 
and  that  in  the  fallow  fields  leave  was  given  to  the  inhabitants  to 
dig  for  the  roots.  This  custom  has  been  abandoned,  and  the  usual 
system  of  rotation  of  crops  introduced.  The  common,  too,  has  of 
late  years  been  much  infringed  upon  by  the  Government  for  public 
purposes,  and  also  by  speculators  for  quarrying  for  stone.  These 
causes  have  very  much  interfered  with  its  manufacture,  so  much 
so  indeed,  that  a  few  years  since,  wishing  to  procure  a  sample  for 
a  friend,  to  illustrate  a  lecture  on  dietetic  articles,  I  found  it  very 
difficult  to  obtain  even  a  half  a  pound  of  it.  Within  the  last  week 
I  have  ascertained  that  one  old  woman  is  the  only  person  who  now 
prepares  any,  and  she  gives  as  her  reason  for  doing  so,  that"  poor 
folks  now-a-day  are  glad  to  turn  an  honest  penny  anyhow."  At 
Ihe  present  time  the  Arum  is  not  very  plentiful  in  the  island,  al- 
though there  is  still  a  vast  extent  of  land  that  will  never  admit 
of  cultivation  on  account  of  its  stony  character,  which,  doubtless, 
produces  most  of  the  small  quantity  now  obtained.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  the  old  woman  previously  mentioned,  liberty  is  not  now 
obtained  to  dig  in  the  cultivated  fields  and  pastures. 
The  Arum  maculatum  is  commonly  called  arrow-root  or.starch- 
root,  but  the  vulgar  names  cows  and  calves,  and  lords  and  ladies, 
are  also  known,  though  not  so  frequently  used.  The  proper  sea- 
son for  collecting  the  corms  is  when  the  plant  has  perfected  its 
growth.  This  is  generally  in  the  months  of  May  and  June.  Those 
which  are  collected  in  May  yield  a  much  less  proportion  of'starch 
than  those  collected  later.  The  fresh  corm  is  extremely  acrid, 
producing  a  most  disagreeable  tingling  and  pricking  sensation  In 
the  mouth,  when  chewed.  This  acridity  I  found  was  not  com- 
pletely removed  by  toasting.  Lindley  states  that  the  corms  are 
edible  when  deprived  of  their  acridity  by  boiling,  but  I  have  never 
known  them  so  used.  This  acridity  renders  it  necessary  to  bruise  the 
corms  in  a  stone  mortar,  and  to  avoid,  as  much  as  possible,  hand- 
ling them  until  after  they  have  been  washed.  The  process  now 
employed  for  the  separation  of  the  fecula  is  the  same  as  that  de- 
scribed by  Mrs.  Gibbs.    The  corms  yield,  according  to  Mrs.  Gibbs, 
