CHAP. X.] 



ARTOCARP^. 



167 



drink it on the spot, others carry it home to 

 their children ; and you might fancy you saw 

 the family of a cowherd gathering around him, 

 and receiving from him the produce of his kine." 

 {Humholdt^ as quoted in the Botanical Magazine^ 

 vol. QQ, t. 3724.) 



The Upas, or Poison tree of Java {Antiaris 

 toxicaria)y about which so many fabulous stories 

 have been told, belongs to this tribe. The male 

 flowers are gathered together in small heads on 

 a fleshy receptacle, (see ^y. 75 a;) and each 

 consists of a calyx of four 

 sepals (^), bending over four 

 stamens, with long anthers 

 and very short filaments. 

 The female flowers have an 

 undivided fleshy calyx with 

 two styles, and this -fleshy 

 covering forms the pericar- 

 dium of the fruit, which is a 

 drupe. When ripe, the fruit 

 represents a moderately sized 

 plum, inclosing the nut, or 

 stone, which contains the kernel or seed, 

 poison lies in the milky sap. 



The common black Mulberry {Morus nigra) 

 has the general features of the order. The 

 male flowers grow together in a dense spike, as 

 shown in Jig. 76 at a, and each flower consists 



Fig. 75.— Upas tree. 



The 



