Spec. Plant. Willd. i. 13.

Cl. 1. Ord. 1. Monandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Marantaceae.

G. 10. Calyx three-leaved. Corolla trifid. Nectary three-parted, with the third superior lacinia anther-bearing.

Species 1. M.arundinacea. Arrow-root Plant. Browns Jamaica, 112. Loudon's Encyc. of Plants, p. 2.

Officinal. Maranta, Lond. The fecula of the rhizomes, Arrowroot. Syn. Amerikanisches Starkmehl, Arrowmehl ( G.).

This plant is a native of South America, the West Indies, and the southern states of North America: it has lately been introduced into Ceylon (Ainslie). The rhizome is perennial, tuberose, fleshy, horizontal, cylindrical, and furnished with long, white fibriles. The stems are annual, rising three feet in height, slender, jointed and branching, giving off at the joints alternate sheathing leaves about four inches long, ovato-lanceolate. The flowers are in loose terminal panicles, furnished at each ramification with a solitary, linear bracte. The calyx consists of three small, lanceolate sepals; the corolla is tubular, white, with the outermost segments small; the innermost are larger and slightly emarginate.

For preparing the arrow-root, the rhizomes are dug up when they are a year old, washed, beaten to a pulp, and agitated in water so as to separate the fibrous from the fecu-laceous part The milky fluid is strained through coarse linen, and left at rest until the fecula subsides, when the supernatant fluid being decanted, the fecula is well washed with fresh portions of water, and dried in the sun.1

Qualities. - Arrow-root is a white, inodorous, insipid, light powder. It is a pure starch; forms a mucilage when it is boiled with water, which strikes a blue colour with iodine. A table-spoonful of the powder will form a pint of the mucilage. In making it, the powder should first be rubbed with a little cold water, then boiling water poured over it, with constant agitation, and the whole boiled for a few minutes. This mucilage is precipitated by astringent infusions and decoctions.

Medical properties and uses.-Arrow-root forms, when it is boiled with water or with milk, a mild, demulcent nutriment, well adapted for children, and for the sick and convalescent.

The mucilage may be combined with lemon juice and sugar; or with wine, or beef tea, according to circumstances.