A simple method by which starch may be extracted from the fecula with much purity consists in enclosing the flour in a muslin bag and squeezing it with the fingers while submerged in clean water, by which process the starch passes out in a state of white powder and subsides.  Two essential constituents of flour are thus separated from each other; a viscid substance remains in the bag, which is called gluten, and the white powder deposited is starch.

The principal quarters from whence the supply is derived, are the Bermudas, St. Vincent, Barbados and Grenada, in the West Indies; Ceylon, and some other parts of the East—­and a few of our settlements on the West coast of Africa.  The annual imports for home consumption average 500 tons.

The cultivation of arrowroot for the production of starch in St. Vincent has increased enormously of late years.  In 1835, the island produced 41,397 lbs.; in 1845 it exported 828,842 lbs.  The exports to 15th June, 1851, were, 2,934 barrels, 2,083 half barrels, 5,610 tins.  The culture is year by year extending, and as, unlike that of the sugar cane, it may be carried on on a small scale with very little outlay of capital, we may reasonably anticipate a still further progressive extension for some years to come.  Arrowroot, when once established in virgin soil, produces several crops with very little culture.  In the first half of 1851, 25,027 lbs. were shipped from Montego Bay, Jamaica.  The quantity of arrowroot on which duty of 1s. per cwt. was paid in the six years ending 1840, was as follows:—­

Cwts.
1835         3,581
1836         3,280
1837         2,858
1838         2,538
1839         2,264
1840         2,124

The imports in the last few years have been in

               Cwt.
  1847 8,040
  1848 10,580
  1849 9,252
  1850 15,980
  1851

About 500 cwt. are re-exported.

East India arrowroot is procured in part from Curcuma angustifolia, known locally as Tikoor in the East, and a similar kind of starch is yielded by C.  Zerumbet, C. rubescens, C. leucorhiza, and Alpinia Galanga, the Galangale root of commerce. C. angustifolia grows abundantly on the Malabar coast, and is cultivated about the districts of Patna, Sagur and the south-west frontier, Mysore, Vizigapatam, and Canjam, Cochin and Tellicherry.  It was discovered but a few years ago growing wild in the forests extending from the banks of the Sona to Nugpore.

The particles of East India arrowroot are very unequal in size, but on the average are larger than those of West India arrowroot.

Dr. Taylor, in his Topography of Dacca, speaks of fecula or starch being obtained from the Egyptian lotus (Nymphaea lotus), which is used by the native practitioners as a substitute for arrowroot.

Chinese arrowroot is said to be made from the root of Nelumbium speciosum.