+Arrowroot+—_Maranta arundinacea_, Linnæus. A plant of the family of the _Scitamineæ_, allied to the genus _Canna_, of which the underground suckers[315] produce the excellent fecula called arrowroot. It is cultivated in the West India Islands and in several tropical countries of continental America. It has also been introduced into the old world—on the coast of Guinea, for instance.[316] _Maranta arundinacea_ is certainly American. According to Sloane,[317] it was brought from Dominica to Barbados, and thence to Jamaica, which leads us to suppose that it was not indigenous in the West Indies. Körnicke, the last author who studied the genus Maranta,[318] saw several specimens which were gathered in Guadaloupe, in St. Thomas, in Mexico, in Central America, in Guiana, and in Brazil; but he did not concern himself to discover whether they were taken from wild, cultivated, or naturalized plants. Collectors hardly ever indicate this; and for the study of the American continent (excepting the United States) we are unprovided with local floras, and especially with floras made by botanists residing in the country. In published works I find the species mentioned as cultivated[319] or growing in plantations,[320] or without any explanation. A locality in Brazil, in the thinly peopled province of Matto Grosso, mentioned by Körnicke, supposes an absence of cultivation. Seemann[321] mentions that the species is found in sunny spots near Panama. A species is also cultivated in the West Indies, Maranta_ indica_, which, Tussac says, was brought from the East Indies. Körnicke believes that _M. ramosissima_ of Wallich found at Sillet, in India, is the same species, and thinks it is a variety of _M. arundinacea_. Out of thirty-six more or less known species of the genus Maranta, thirty at least are of American origin. It is therefore unlikely that two or three others should be Asiatic. Until Sir Joseph Hooker’s _Flora of British India_ is completed, these questions on the species of the _Scitamineæ_ and their origin will be very obscure. Anglo-Indians obtain arrowroot from another plant of the same family, _Curcuma angustifolia_, Roxburgh, which grows in the forests of the Deccan and in Malabar.[322] I do not know whether it is cultivated. CHAPTER II. PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR STEMS OR LEAVES. _Article I._—+Vegetables+. +Common Cabbage+—_Brassica oleracea_, Linnæus.