The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-04-11
TROPICAL SPICES.
HOW SOME WE'LL KNOWN AIDS
TO COOKERY ARE GROWN.
Tapioca in its Crude State-A Spice
that is Cultivated by Birds
Nutmeg and Mace-The
Cocoa Plant, Etc.

tnat IS Cultivated ny blruS-
Nutmeg and Mace-The
Cocoa Plant. Etc.
sDo spices grow in that manner?"
asked a reporter for the New York Null
and Espress of Heading importer who
called his attention to several large,
Theoretically sealed glass jars, in which
there were many specimens of different
plants with their flowers, fruit and
leaves, preserved in alcohol.
"YeS," was the answer, ':and few in
this city know anything aboutit. They
see the different spices either whole or
ground, and are no more acquainttd d
with the method of their production
than was the Londoner who thought
cucumbers grew in ready-made slices.
Would you like to know something
about them? Well, that is tapioca in its
crude state. You see it is loot, and
nat unlike parsnip. In that con-
dition it is deadly poison when
fresh gathered. 1t is production of
the warm regions of this hemisphere,
and was known to the natives as manioc,
mandioc or cassava. Before Brazil and
Mexico were discovered by Europeans
the natives used this root as food, after
properly preparing it. You see it is a
shrubby plant, with slender, woody
knotted stems and palmated leaves. The
juice of the plant, and even of its tubers,
from which the tapioca is made, is very
ac:id and poisonous. After the juice is
removed o nutritious article of food can
be produced. Some of the tubers, or
roots, weigh thirty pounds. After the
rind is removed the remainder is reduced
to pulp by a grindstone, then washed
with water, pressed and baked, forming
cassaya bread. The starch which floats
is collected aud prepared, then sold
either as Brazilian arrowroot or tapioca.
The poison, being volatile, passes off
without heat or washing. 1t supposed
to be hydrocyanic or prussi: acid: Ami
mails eating the fresh root would soon
die, and the Indians used this juice with
which to poison their arrows"
''W1at is that"
"That is the papaw, an American
tropical plant. 1t grows on a tree, so
that the specimen here is only of the
leaves, flowers and fruit. The tree is
twenty feet high, has hollow stem and
is crowned with leaf stalks like the palm.
1t has male and female flowers on
different trees, and the fruit is the size
of small melon. When ripe it is eaten
with sugar and pepper, and the half
grown fruit is much esteemed all over
the world as q pickle. The next is the
mango, used for making chutney. 1t is
a tropical fruit, IS large as an apple,
oval in chape, full of sweetish, acrid
Juice, with rich, peculiar flavor. 1t
can also be made into jellies, preserves
or pickles. The plant is exogenous, and
the tree grows sometimes fifty feet high. "
"What are those bright red things."
pointing to another jar, filled with leaves,
from which peeped out several brilliant
looking pods not unlike "peppers"
"Thcy are tamarinds. The tree grows
in the tropics, from forty to sixty feet
high, with spreading top. The leaves,
as you see, are pinnate, like the noun
tain ash. The flowers are produced
loosely, and the fruit is in those led pods,
of which FIVE or six grow in bunch,
from three to six inches in length, the
edible portion being the pulp. They
are usually preserved in sugar and thus
exported for use as food or medicine,
being both laxative and refrigerant, and
when infused in water form a grateful
drink in fevers."
"But you can hardly call these speci-
mems spices2' :.
"Perhaps not, in the strict sense of
the word, yet they come from the spice
regions. Here are two, however (point-
ing to two other jars), which show a
spice in the Towering and fruit-bearing
conditions. They are the pimento or
allspicc. 1t grows on the hills Of ia
maica, and is cultivated by the parrots
and cockatoos. The natives never in
terfcrc with the birds when thus en-
gagged. You know what noisy birds
they are; yet when in the pimento
grounds they are quiet as mice. The
plant is very prolific. and the spice is
formed in the base of the flower, after
the leaves have dropped off. 1t is the
seed of the plant and when growing
forms a pretty shrub. DO you know
what this is ?"
The questioncr pointed to smother jar,
containing what appeared to be num-
ber of wtite peaches hanging on
branches.
"That is both the nutmeg and mace.
The first grows in the way you see it, on
a stalk. When ripe it bursts open and
the nut or kernel drops out. The nut is
something like the pit of peach, with
the exception that around the pit is a
kind of hard lacework of yellowish
wood. That is the mace, so we'll known
in commerce. Thus you see two spices
are produced from the kernel of the
same fruit of plant" :,
The next jar contained what appeared
to be yellow cucumbers, somewhat
swollen, one which had burst open,
showing a lot OF seeds enclosed in a
pinkish white, jelly-like substance.
s'That is the cocoa plant, from the
seeds of which chocolate is produced.
The seeds are enclosed in the pinkish
pulp, and when taken thence and dried
become cocoa nibs, as the term is. You
see the plant differs from the coeoanut,
which is in the next jar. That grows
on the palm tree, and the fruit hangs
in clusters on the top. In that jar you
see the flower and bud, the fruit just
forming and the half.grown nut. That
is one of the best collections of the kind
in The country.
A Novel Shell for Steamboat Warfare.
"The coming weapon of civilized
warfare will not be an explosive bullet,
but chemical one," remarked a scien-
tific gentleman a day or so ago. "Alany
iona Of this sort have heen made