discovery, the plant, which was found growing commonly in the woods of St. Domingo, was for some time after used in this manner: no part of the plant, with the exception of the tuberous root was found to be edible.

SALEP Orchis mascula.-This plant is assiduously cultivated in the East, for the sake of its root, which forms a considerable part of the diet of the inhabitants of Turkey, Syria, and Persia. Botanists have enumerated many species of this genus plants, which are fleshy rooted, and from several of which salep may be prepared. That which is generally preferred, however, is the one above named, the orchis mascula, or male orchis, and it is from

of

the root of this that the starchy substance brought from the Levant is supposed to be prepared.

This article of commerce comes to us in pieces of an oval form, very hard, approaching to transparency, and of a yellowish white colour. Although this substance has been for so long a time imported from a distant market, the plant from which it is prepared is furnished spontaneously, and in great abundance, in many parts of our own country. The Turkey roots are, however, much finer than ours; which may account for the greater esteem in which they are held.

The plant consists of a root composed of two fleshy lobes, crowned with oblong, broad, spotted leaves, and having upright stalks growing to the height of twelve inches, furnished with one or two narrow leaves, and terminated by a long spike of reddish purple flowers, which exhale a very slight agreeable odour; these commonly appear in the months of May, June, and July. The soil best adapted to its growth is that which is dry and not very fertile. It is worthy of remark that in rich lands, and those which have been highly manured, the orchidea do not come to maturity; where the experiment has been tried, the roots of the few plants that did appear proved black, and were half rotted in the ground. The stem is sent up by the lobe of a former year, and the new lobe, which is therefore easily distinguishable from the old one, is formed in the course of the summer as the tubers of potatoes. The root is known to be fully matured when the leaves and stalk begin to decay; the plants may then be dug up, and the new lobes-from which alone salep is made-separated from the others.

Many methods have been proposed for preparing salep. In the performance of the one among those methods which appear to be the simplest and best,

the new root is first washed in warm water, when the fine brown skin with which it is covered may easily be rubbed away, by means of a coarse cloth or a brush. The roots being thus cleaned and peeled, are to be arranged on a tin plate, and then placed within an oven, heated to the same degree as is necessary for the baking of bread; here they are to remain from seven to ten minutes, in which time they will exchange their opaque and milky whiteness for a semi-transparent horn-like appearance, and a yellowish colour, retaining their original bulk. Being then withdrawn from the oven, they are exposed during some days to dry and harden in the air; or by the employment of a very gentle heat they may be brought to the same state in the course of a few hours all that is then required to adapt the salep for food, is to boil it in water to the required consistency.

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It is said that salep contains a greater quantity of nutriment in the same bulk than any other vegetable body; and for this reason it has been proposed that it should be made to form a part of the provisions of every ship that undertakes a distant voyage. So high a nutritive power has been assigned to. salep, that, it is asserted, if one ounce of the pow dered root, mixed with an equal weight of the stiff animal jelly or glue, known as portable soup, be boiled in two quarts of water, it will suffice for the daily nourishment of an able-bodied man.

A small quantity of salep added to milk has been found to retard the commencement of the acetous fermentation in that fluid; and there is reason to believe that if it were used in a moderate proportion, it would prove a very useful and economical addition to wheaten flower, in the preparation of bread. Dr. Percival, in his Medical and Experimental Essays,' mentions the results of some experiments

of this kind. "I directed," says he, "one ounce of the powder to be dissolved in a quart of water, and the mucilage to be mixed with a sufficient quantity of flour, salt, and yeast. The flour amounted to two pounds, the yeast to two ounces, and the salt to eighty grains. The loaf when baked was remarkably well fermented, and weighed three pounds Half a pound of flour and an ounce of salep were mixed together, and the water added according to the usual method of preparing bread. The loaf when baked weighed thirteen ounces and a half, but it should be remarked that the quantity of flour used in this trial was not sufficient to conceal the peculiar taste of the salep."

two ounces.

It is to be presumed that the last mentioned circumstance did not occur where the proportion of wheat flour was greater, and the result is certainly such as should at least encourage the prosecution of farther experiments. This vegetable preparation is held to be exceedingly wholesome, and was formerly in considerable favour with medical practitioners.

INDIAN ARROW-ROOT-Maranta arundinacea.Arrow-root, when prepared for use, bears a considerable resemblance to the substance last described, consisting, equally with that, of little else than mucilaginous matter. It forms, therefore, a pleasant and useful aliment for children and invalids.

The plant from which it is prepared is a native of South America. It is an herbaceous perennial, and is propagated by parting the roots. It rises to the height of two or three feet, has broad pointed leaves, and is crowned by a spike of small white flowers. It is much cultivated both for domestic use and for exportation in our West India islands, and in some parts of Hindostan.

There are several species of maranta, only two of which the arundinacea, or starch plant, and the

Indian Arrow-root-Maranta arundinacea.

The

M. ramosissima of India-are thus cultivated. name by which it is commonly known it owes to the use which was formerly made of another plant which was once confounded with it, but is now distinguished by the name of Alpinia galanga. The Indians employed that root for extracting the virus communicated by their poisoned arrows.

The starchy matter, for the obtaining of which the plant is cultivated, is prepared by the following process:- -When the roots are a year old they are dug up, and having first been well washed in clear water, are either grated or beaten to a pulp,