20.  Arrowroot |1.4158 | 86.25 |Bermuda, ditto 21.  Maize |1.4109 | 85.5 |Grown in the colony and prepared in C.L. ------------------+-------+-------+-------------------------
---------------

From this it will be seen that the order of density does not correspond with the order in any of the other tables.  Probably those specimens prepared from dry seeds, such as wheat and maize starch, which, as commercial articles at least, are less pure than those prepared from recently dug roots, have also the lowest density.

Hygroscopic properties of starch produced from different plants.—­Such of the specimens as are marked in the following table, as prepared in the colonial laboratory, were dried in the sun in shallow trays, to which they had previously been transferred in the wet state.  When sun dried, the masses were broken down, and the starches freely exposed to the air in the shade for ten days.  Any adherent masses were then rubbed to powder by light pressure in a glazed mortar, and the whole sifted.  Portions of each of these starches, and of others for the sake of comparison, were then dried, at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, in a current of dry air, and the loss determined:—­

TABLE No.  II.—­SHOWING THE HYGROSCOPIC WATER CONTAINED BY STARCH
PRODUCED FROM DIFFERENT PLANTS.

Per centage of water.               Remarks.
1.  Potato                 20.27         Commercial, locality unknown
2.  Sweet potato           19.57         C., C.L.**
3.  Buck yam               19.43         C., C.L.
4.  Barbados yam           19.40         C., C.L.
5.  Arrowroot              18.81         Bermuda, commercial
6.  Irish potato           17.28         Tubers from Belfast, C.L.
7.  Guinea yam             17.14         C., C.L.
8.  Tous les mois          16.74         Grenada, commercial
9.  Arrowroot              16.43         Barbados, ditto
10.  Common yam             16.36         C., C.L.
11.  Plantain               16.23         C., C.L.
12.  Arrowroot              15.65         C., C.L.
13.  Arrowroot              14.84         C., Plantation Enmore
14.  Tous les mois          14.64         C., C.L.
15.  Tannia                 14.60         C., C.L.
16.  Sweet cassava          14.30         C., C.L.
17.  Maize                  14.22         C., C.L.
18.  Arrowroot              13.36         C., C.L.
19.  Bitter cassava         11.88         C., C.L.
20.  Wheat starch           11.16         Commercial, of English manufacture

  [** The initial C. throughout these tables indicates that the plant
  was grown in the colony; C.L., that the starch was prepared in the
  colonial laboratory.]

That the extremes in this table should occur in the case of the starches of commerce, was, perhaps, to be expected; nevertheless the difference between the starch of the sweet potato and that of the bitter cassava is nearly as great, and both these specimens were prepared in the laboratory, by the same process, and subject to the same temperature and exposure.