22 OBSERVATIONS ON ZAMIA INTEGRIFOLIA. 
ART. II. — OBSERVATIONS ON ZAMIA INTEGRIFOLIA— THE 
PLANT WHICH AFFORDS FLORIDA ARROW ROOT. By 
Joseph Carson, M. D. 
Read at the Pharmaceutical Meeting of the College of Pharmacy, Feb. 14, 1842. 
The source of " Florida Arrow Root" appears not to be 
commonly known to Pharmaceutists, the generality of whom 
have attributed it to the same plant that affords the Bermuda 
article, the Maranta arundinacea. The supposition that 
both these varieties of the drug were obtained from the plant 
mentioned can readily be explained. It is well understood 
that the Maranta arundinacea is found in other localities be- 
sides the island of Bermuda, in which it either grows sponta- 
neously or is cultivated; thus it is common in Cuba, Jamaica, 
and other West India Islands; the close proximity of these 
localities to the coast of Florida, therefore, naturally induced 
the belief that it also existed in this juxta tropical portion of 
our country, independently of the vague reference by authors 
to such a location. The existence of it in Florida, whether 
correctly asserted or otherwise, has nothing to do with the 
origin and derivation of the article designated as Florida Arrow 
Root, as it is now ascertained to be obtained from an entirely 
distinct vegetable, possessing wholly different characteris- 
tics. 
Florida Arrow Root has been brought so frequently into 
our market, as to have become known to most of our drug- 
gists, and yet in no authority do we find an allusion to a dif- 
ference of source, nor has any suggestion been thrown out with 
respect to its true origin. In drawing up the present com- 
munication, which has been attempted with the desire of fill- 
ing a chasm existing in our Pharmacological knowledge, it 
should be stated that I am indebted for many of the facts con- 
tained in it to officers of our army, who, at different times, 
