ondition is a most virulent poison, but by
grating the roots to a pulp the poison is expelled by pressure,
and altogether dissipated by cooking. The expressed juice, when
allowed to settle, deposits the starch known as tapioca.

279. MARANTA ARUNDINACEA.--The arrowroot plant, cultivated for its
starch. The tubers being reduced to pulp with water, the fecula
subsides, and is washed and dried for commerce. It is a very pure
kind of starch, and very nutritious. The term arrowroot is said to
be derived from the fact that the natives of the West Indies use
the roots of the plant as an application to wounds made by poison
arrows.

280. MAURITIA FLEXUOSA.--The Moriche, or Ita palm, very abundant on the
banks of the Amazon, Rio Negro, and Orinoco Rivers. In the delta
of the latter it occupies swampy tracts of ground, which are at
times completely inundated, and present the appearance of forests
rising out of the water. These swamps are frequented by a tribe of
Indians called Guaranes, who subsist almost entirely upon the
produce of this palm, and during the period of the inundations
suspend their dwellings from the tops of its tall stems. The outer
skin of the young leaves is made into string and cord for the
manufacture of hammocks. The fermented sap yields palm wine, and
another beverage is prepared from the young fruits, while the soft
inner bark of the stem yields a farinaceous substance like sago.

281. MAXIMILIANA REGIA.--An Amazonian palm called Inaja. The spathes
are so hard that, when filled with water, they will stand the
fire, and are sometimes used by the Indians as cooking utensils.
The Indians who prepare the kind of rubber called bottle rubber,
make use of the hard stones of the fruit as fuel for smoking and
drying the successive layers of milky juice as it is applied to
the mold upon which the bottles are formed. The outer husk, also,
yields a kind of saline flour used for seasoning their food.

282. MELALEUCA MINOR.--A native of Australia and the islands of the
Indian Ocean. The leaves, being fermented, are distilled, and
yield an oil known as cajuput or cajeput oil, which is green, and
has a strong aromatic odor. It is valuable as an antispasmodic
and stimulant, and at one time had a great reputation as a cure
for