60 DR. C. MELLER’S JOURNAL 
cordate pointed leaves), called * Lafa,” from the bark of which a 
coarser kind of cord is made. 
On the second day’s journey, a wide river, the Herondro, had 
to be crossed, and the road lay through a wide plain studded with 
decaying timber and leafless withered trees. Herds of oxen, 
thousands in number (one owner alone having 4000), fed here ; 
and the grass was luxuriant, though the trees were mostly dead. 
Bleached, leafless trees, standing sentinel-like over the fallen, 
were topped or studded with earth-balls, the houses of the red 
ant; and of the fallen timber many had these deformities on them, 
and the covered ways of the red ants, which exist in great force 
on this part of the road. There is no indication of grass firing, 
no dearth of water or soil ; yet few of the thousands of trees here 
have life. (Have the ants anything to do with this ?) 
The Tanghinia veneniflua, Voan Tangan of the Malagasy (the 
ordeal poison-tree), grows along the coast. It was in full flower 
and fruit as we passed. It is one of the most beautiful trees seen 
in the journey, and very abundant. From one of the Christians 
at Antananarivo, who went through the ordeal during the days of 
persecution in the late Queen's reign, I learnt the mode of its 
administration. The fruit was taken, bruised, and boiled whole. 
A fowl was boiled, and the broth set aside. Three pieces of the 
skin of the fowl were cut and put into the broth. A cupful of the 
poison was first administered, followed by another of the broth 
containing the three pieces of skin. If vomiting did not speedily 
set in, the poison soon killed; but if it did, it was kept up by 
constant exhibition of the broth and warm water, until the three 
pieces of skin were ejected. Should these obstinately remain, it 
was held as evidence of guilt, and another dose of the poison was 
administered. 
Hanging from the fork of a tree by one of the lakes, I found a 
pendent ribbon-like fern *, the roots of which were fixed in a 
mass of earth and decomposed leaves collected in the hollow of 
the tree. Each ribbon fell to a distance of from 3 to 5 feet, then 
bi- or trifurcated, and from the under part sent down a spore-case, 
which contained in the ripe state a mass of yellow granular matter. 
The primary divisions fell from 1 to 3 feet more, then subdivided, 
and beneath each subdivision was a spore-case connected by à 
diverticulum. Some of these bands measured 12 feet. 
Lining the beach from Tamatave to Andovorant, the point from 
which the road turns westward, are two species of Pandanus or 
* Ophioglossum pendulum. 
