412 Mr. Schomburgk on the Indian Arrow Poison^ 



ing trees, and reaches often a height of thirty to forty feet be- 

 fore it divides into branches. The latter are rounded and op- 

 posite, the branchlets densely covered with ferruginous hair. 

 Between the branches and likewise between the leaves there 

 appear spiral tendrils, mostly single, but sometimes divided. 

 The branchlets prove sometimes abortive on one side, and are 

 then replaced by the cirrhus, which in that case becomes leaf- 

 bearing. Organs of a peculiar structure, apparently gem- 

 mulae, are found below the base of the branchlets as well as 

 on the branch itself; on the outside they are closely set with 

 hair, on the inside smooth and coriaceous and of a spatulate 

 form. They are not peculiar to every branch, but mostly to 

 be found on the branchlet by which it is terminated. The 

 leaves are opposite, ovate-oblong, acuminate, short-petioled, 

 entire, three to five-nerved, ciliate, membranaceous, and co- 

 vered with ferruginous hair, which is thicker set between each 

 pair of petioles ; the leaves differ in size from one inch and a 

 half to four inches and a half, and are from one to two inches 

 broad, the stalk being only two lines. 



As already observed, the plant was not in flower in Decem- 

 ber, and had just begun to drop its fruit, w hich were on long 

 stalks ; and the rudiments of a five-cleft calyx and an inferior 

 corolla were easily perceptible. 



The fruit is a berry of the size of a large apple, being fre- 

 quently twelve inches in circumference ; it is globular, and 

 covered with a smooth hard rind of a bluish green colour and 

 filled with a soft jelly-like pulp, in which the seeds, ten to 

 fifteen in number, are immersed. They are round, concavo- 

 convex, about an inch in diameter, and five to six lines thick ; 

 from the circumference five rays extend towards the promi- 

 nence in the middle. They are of a grey colour and rough ; 

 the internal kernel is a yellowish white, and tough, like horn. 

 This substance, according to Indian information, possesses 

 intense bitter and medicinal properties ; it is used by the In- 

 dians against pain in the stomach, dysentery, and as a tonic. 



We observed many heaps of the cut wood covered with 

 palm-leaves, which we were told had been left by the Macusis, 

 who come to this place from a great distance, as the plant is 

 known to grow only in two or three situations at the Canuku 

 mountains ; they are therefore resorted to by the Indians from 

 all quarters. 



The Wapisianas and Macusis are generally acknowledged 

 to be the best manufacturers of the poison ; and from the 

 corroborative testimony of these tribes, I have gathered the 

 following particulars respecting its preparation. 



It is only the bark of the woody parts and its alburnum 



