560 
ON  PORTLAND  ARROW-ROOT. 
four  pounds  of  fecula  to  the  peck.  My  informant  tells  me  she  ob- 
tains on  an  average  three  pounds  from  a  peck  of  corm,  more  in 
June,  less  in  May.  During  the  whole  season  she  considers  three 
dozen  pounds  to  be  a  good  average  quantity  1o  obtain,  and  for  this 
she  asks  Is.  4d.  per  pound.  It  is  highly  valued  by  the  Portlanders, 
who  say  that  it  is  good  for  sick  people,  and  looks,  when  prepared, 
very  different  from  the  arrow-root  of  the  shops.  I  have  compared 
it  with  Bermuda  Arrow-root,  and  find  that  it  does  not  make  either 
so  clear  or  firm  a  jelly,  but  is  perfectly  inodorous,  tasteless,  and 
destitute  of  color.  The  granules,  when  viewed  under  the  micro- 
scope, appear  of  an  irregular  spherical  shape,  varying  much  in 
size,  but  are  on  an  average  much  smaller  than  ordinary  starches, 
except  rice  starch.  The  hilum  is  not  very  distinctly  marked,  ap- 
pearing plainly  only  in  the  larger  granules. 
The  Portland  Arrow-root  is,  I  believe,  only  made  in  the  Isle  of 
Portland  ;  although  there  is  an  abundance  of  the  Arum  in  some  of 
the  commons  near  Weymouth,  yet  the  country  people  do  not  ap- 
pear to  know  that  it  is  of  any  use.  This  will,  doubtless,  appear 
strange  to  those  unacquainted  with  Portland,  but  when  we  con- 
sider that  until  with  a  few  years  the  Portlanders  have  kept  them- 
selves as  much  as  possible  aloof  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  even 
forsaking  their  friends  who  dared  to  marry  out  of  the  island,  and 
not  permitting  a  stranger  to  settle  amongst  them,  we  can  no  lon- 
ger wonder  that  they  have  kept  their  knowledge  to  themselves. 
They  are  probably  a  race  of  entirely  distinct  origin  from  the  in- 
habitants of  the  main  land  ;  even  now  they  use  words  which  are 
not  understood  by  us.  This  arrow-root  has  been  prepared  by  them 
from  time  immemorial  ;  and  it  is  very  probable,  that  living  on  a 
barren  island  and  depending  principally  on  fish,  they  may  have 
been  compelled  by  necessity  at  some  time  to  seek  subsistence  by 
preparing  the  corms  for  food. 
It  is  a  singular  fact,  that  the  plant  is  called  arrow-root  by  the  isl- 
anders, perhaps  from  its  sagittate  leaves.  May  not  the  Mar  ant  a 
arundinacea  have  derived  its  English  name  from  the  previously 
known  and  appreciated  arrowroot  of  the  Isle  of  Portland  ? — Tran- 
sactions of  the  Phytological  Club,  in  Pharm.  Journ.  Aug.  1853. 
