pe, are used as food. The pods contain a large proportion
of sweet fecula, and are frequently used by singers, being considered
to improve the voice. The name of St. John's Head has been applied to
them, from the supposition that they were the wild honey spoken of in
Scripture as the food of John the Baptist. About 40,000 quintals of
these carobs are annually exported from Crete. During the Peninsular
war, the horses of our cavalry were principally fed upon these
algaroba seeds. The pods of the West India locust tree, _Hymenaea
courbaril_, also supply a nutritious matter.

That well known sauce, Soy, is made in some parts of the East, from a
species of the Dolichos bean (_Soja hispida_), which grows in China
and Japan. In Java it is procured from the _Phaseolus radiatus_. The
beans are boiled soft, with wheat or barley of equal quantities, and
left for three months to ferment; salt and water are then added, when
the liquor is pressed and strained. Good soy is agreeable when a few
years old; the Japan soy is superior to the Chinese. Large quantities
are shipped for England and America. The Dolichos bean is much
cultivated in Japan, where various culinary articles are prepared from
it; but the principal are a sort of butter, termed _mico_, and a
pickle called _sooja_.

1,108 piculs of soy were shipped from Canton in 1844, for London,
British India, and Singapore. 100 jars, or about 50 gallons of soy,
were received at Liverpool in 1850. The price is about 6s. per gallon
in the London market.

THE SAGO PALMS, BREAD-FRUIT, &c.

Sago, and starchy matter allied to it, is obtained from many palms. It
is contained in the cellular tissue of the stem, and is separated by
bruising and elutriation. From the soft stem of _Cycas circinalis_, a
kind of sago is produced in the East and West Indies. The finest is,
however, procured from the stems of _Sagus laevis_ (_S. inermis_, of
Roxburgh), a native of Borneo and Sumatra; and _Arenga saccharifera_,
or _Gomutus saccharifus_, of Rumphius. The _Saguerus Rumphii_, or
_Metroxylon Sagus_, which is found in the Eastern Islands of the
Indian Ocean, yields a feculent matter. After the starchy substance is
washed out of the stems of these palms, it is then granulated so as to
form sago. The last-mentioned palm also furnishes a large supply of
sugar. Sago as well as sugar, and a kind of palm wine, are procured
from _Caryota urens_.

In China sago is obtained from _Rhapis flabelliformis_,