According to Dr. Livingstone, the inhabitants of Angola live almost exclusively upon the Tapioca plant. He thus describes the mode of preparing it, &c.:--"They (speaking of the half-caste Portuguese) subsist chiefly on the Manioc, and as that can be eaten either raw, roasted, or boiled, as it comes from the ground, or fermented in water and then roasted or dried after fermentation and baked, or pounded or rasped into meal and cooked as farina, or made into confectionery with butter and sugar, it does not so soon pall upon the palate as one might imagine when told that it constitutes their principal food. The leaves, boiled, make an excellent vegetable for the table, and when eaten by goats, their milk is much increased. The wood is a good fuel, and yields a large quantity of potash.... The root, rasped while raw, placed upon a cloth, and rubbed with the hands while water is poured upon it, parts with its starchy glutinous matter, and this, when it settles at the bottom of the vessel and the water is poured off, is placed in the sun till nearly dry to form tapioca, the process of drying is completed on an iron plate over a slow fire, the mass being stirred meanwhile with a stick; when dry, it appears agglutinated into little globules, and is in the form we see in the tapioca of commerce." Although none of this family of plants produce building timber (according to our notions of that article), yet it is questionable whether we have a greater number of uses for our exogenous woods than are found by the natives of those countries where the Endogenæ abound for palm stems and bamboo canes; as the Grecian styles of architecture arose from the imitation of structures of timber, so the Hindoo and Chinese styles have arisen from imitation of bamboo buildings. There is scarcely a constructive use that can be imagined to which this convenient material is not applied. In the "Penny Cyclopædia" (article "Bambusa") is the following:-- "The purposes to which different species of bamboo are applied, are so numerous that it would be difficult to point out an object in which strength and elasticity are requisite, and for which lightness is no objection, to which the stems are not adapted in the countries where they grow. The young shoots of some species are cut when tender, and eaten like asparagus. The full-grown stems, while green, form elegant cases, exhaling a perpetual moisture, and capable of transporting fresh flowers for hundreds of miles; when ripe and hard, they are converted into bows, arrows, and quivers, lance-shafts, the masts of vessels, bed-posts, walking-sticks, the poles of palanquins, the floors and supporters of rustic bridges, and a variety of similar purposes. In a growing state the spiny kinds are formed into stockades, which are impenetrable to any but regular infantry aided by artillery.