. A history of the vegetable kingdom; embracing the physiology of plants, with their uses to man and the lower animals, and their application in the arts, manufactures, and domestic economy. Illus. by several hundred figures. Botany; Botany, Economic; 1855. THE PIA. 285 icating drink or another. The leaves of this plant are also boiled and eaten by the Indians. Such is the productiveness of the cassava plant, tl\at it has been calculated that an acre planted with it will yield nourishment to more human beings tlian six acres of wheat. The tapioca of this country is the produce of the cassava r
. A history of the vegetable kingdom; embracing the physiology of plants, with their uses to man and the lower animals, and their application in the arts, manufactures, and domestic economy. Illus. by several hundred figures. Botany; Botany, Economic; 1855. THE PIA. 285 icating drink or another. The leaves of this plant are also boiled and eaten by the Indians. Such is the productiveness of the cassava plant, tl\at it has been calculated that an acre planted with it will yield nourishment to more human beings tlian six acres of wheat. The tapioca of this country is the produce of the cassava root. It is in every respect identical with pure farina. The Pia (tacia pinnatifida). This is an herbaceous plant, indigenous to the South sea islands, from the dried roots of which the natives prepare a farinaceous substance, very muclr re- sembling arrow root. The plant grows wild, but is also cultivated in their gardens. In pre- paring the farina the root is first beaten to a pulp, and subjected to repeated washings, by which it becomes tasteless and colourless. It is tlien dried in the sun, and becomes fit for Use. CHAP. XXXI. DMBELLIFER^, IN'CLUDING THE CARROT, PARSNIP, &C. Under the natural family of umbelliferse, are comprehended a number of edible roots and cu- linary plants of considerable importance, as arti- cles of food. The same family contains, how- ever, plants of a very opposite nature, possessing all the properties of acrid and virulent poisons. The members of this family are generally recog- nised by their hollow stems and deeply notched leaves, with a sheathing petiole. Their flowers are mostly white, or greenish sometimes, but rarely of a pinkish hue. The inflorescence is what is called umbellate, and the seed or fruit con- 115. sists of two ribbed portions, which are joined together by a common axis, and a thickened discus. All are inhabitants of moist ditches or damp way-sides, in the colder parts of the earth, and temperate zones. In the tropics they a
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