INDIAN ARROW-ROOT; a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the monandra class of plants. There are two species, the arundinacea and galanica, both of them herbaceous perennial exotics of the Indies, kept here in hot-houses for curiosity: they have thick, knotty, creeping roots, crowned with long, broad, arundinaceous leaves, ending in points, and upright stalks, half a yard high, terminated by bunches of monopetalous, ringent, five-parted flowers. They are propagated by parting the roots in spring, and planting them in pots of light rich earth, and then plunging them in the bark-bed. The root of the galanga is used by the Indians to extract the virus communicated by their poisoned arrows; from whence it has derived its name of arrow root.