The _Mauritia flexuosa_, or fan palm of the Oronooco, is of still greater utility to the natives of South America. It is a social palm, abounding in the marshes, and having a geographical range of very vast extent. The whole northern portion of South America, east of the Cordilleras, appears to be possessed of this gorgeous palm; from the mouth of the Oronooco to the river Amazon, and through the whole of Guiana, through Surinam and the northern part of Brazil, and in very various places along the river Amazon, even to its source on the eastern declivity of the Cordilleras, this palm is found, constituting forests of greater or less extent. Its smooth grey stem rising often 100 feet, forms groups that, in the northern part of Brazil, resemble the pallisades of some gigantic fortress. The produce of these lofty cylinders is very great, not merely of sago, which is procured only when the process of flowering is about to occur, but many trees being cut down before this event, a juice is obtained from them, which forms, by fermentation, a sweet wine; while those that flower, after which no good sago can be got, furnish an extraordinary quantity of fruit, hanging in bunches many feet in length, which is as agreeable as ripe apples, the taste of which it resembles. The other products of this tree are numerous[J]. It would lead beyond just limits, were we to notice in detail, the plants which yield starch suitable for food, only after undergoing a process of art, by which an acrid principle is driven off, and a bland, wholesome substance remains behind. Such is the Janipha (or Jatropha) Manihot, which yields the Mandiocca, Tapioca, or Cassava, an article not only of great consumption in, but also of considerable export from, Brazil (see Spix and Martius' Travels, and Lib. of Enter. Knowledge, Vegt. Sub. Food of Man, p. 152), which, when raw, is poisonous both to man and cattle, though it becomes safe and agreeable by the application of heat. So likewise the large tubers of several _Arums_, such as _A. Macrorhizon_, _A. Colocasia_, _Caladium acre_, and which are cultivated with great care in tropical and subtropical countries, particularly in the Sandwich and South Sea islands. All of these excite inflammation and swelling of the mouth and tongue, even to the danger of suffocation, but which are disarmed of their virulence, and converted into an article of daily consumption, by fire. Even yams and sweet potatoes, which are naturally mild, are less articles of consumption in the south sea islands, than the Tarro, as these tubers of the _arums_ are designated.