VRTICACEJiJ. 849 



the ground, and wliicli is given off in such abundance as to be 

 fatal to animals that approach too closely* These pestiferous 

 valleys are connected with the numerous volcanoes "in the 

 island. The craters of some of these emit, according to 

 Heinwardt, sulphureous vapours in such abundance as to cause 

 the death of great numbers of tigers, birds and insects ; while the 

 rivers and lakes are in some cases so charged with sulphuric 

 acid, that no fish can live in them." (Treasury of Botany.) 



In Travancore A. toxkaria is known as the sacking free, and is 

 not regarded by the natives as poisonous ; the same is the case in 

 Coorg, where sacks and even garments are sometimes made from 

 the inner bark. In the Concan and in Canara the bitter seeds 

 are used as a febrifuge, and as a remedy in dysentery, one-third 

 to one-half of a seed being given three times a day. 



The use in the Malayan region of a vegetable poison to tip 

 the bamboo arrows which are discharged from a blowpipe, is too 

 well known to need description. To this the name Upas is 

 given in Java, and Ipoh by the Malays elsewhere. Both words 

 have the same meaning, and, according to Blume, signify 

 poison. There is no doubt that this poison is the produce of 

 A. toxicaria. In 1878, Eegnault experimented with a poison 

 used by the savages of Tonkin to poison their arrows, and in a 

 communication to the i^ociete de hiologle he showed that this 

 substance was a powerful heart poison. Baillon identified the 

 leaves from which the poison was prepared as those of 

 A. toxicaria. In 1881, Sir Cecil Smith, then Colonial Secretary 

 to the Straits Settlements, forwarded to Kew a bottle of Ipoh 

 poison as well as foliage specimens of the tree from which it 

 was obtained. These were collected by Sir Hugh Low, then 

 British Resident in Perak, at the Plus River. The poison was 

 subjected to a careful examination by Dr. Sidney Ringer, who 

 reported that it was perfectly inert. The plant seemed identical 

 with that collected by Griffith, and both were identified at Kew 

 with the Javanese A. toxicaria. In 1888, Chauvet {These 

 Bordeaux) examined the arrow poison of Indo-China, and came 

 to the same conclusions concerning its poisonous properties as 

 were arrived at by Regnault in 1878. In 1889, the Straits 



