pPant/ of (iFP-©racn. 89 



plant to be of the Stramonium (Datura) family, which infuriates 

 those who drink it. 



" In New Andalusia very poisonous trees are seen. If one of 

 their leaves were to fall upon a person, he would be killed at once, 

 unless the place be quickly smeared with the spittle of a fasting 

 man. These trees are called pestiferous and pestilent, from the 

 sudden death which they cause, like the plague. 



" In the island of San Juan de Porto Ricco grow certain small 

 fruit-bearing trees which are so pernicious that if a person lies 

 down and sleeps beneath their shade, he is seized with paralysis 

 and cannot move from the place. Should, perchance, a fish taste 

 of their fallen leaves, and a man eat the fish, he either dies at 

 once or at least loses all his hair. 



" On an island near Brazil a very pleasant tree is said to 

 grow, whose leaves are not unlike those of the Laurel. But 

 if any person should touch a leaf of this tree, and then touch 

 his face and eyes with the hand, he is at once deprived of sight 

 and suffers the severest pains in his eyes. Not far distant, 

 however, there grows another tree, whose leaves, if rubbed over 

 tlie eyes, restore the eyesight, and remove the pains. 



" Kircher relates that a wonderful tree is found in the Philip- 

 l)ine Islands. Its leaves, facing eastward, are healthy, but those 

 facing westward are poisonous. 



" Clusius states that in America there is a kind of Larch, 

 which makes men who sleep under its shade so delirious, that when 

 they are awakened, they are out of their minds and assume strange 

 attitudes. Some act like prophets, some like soldiers, some like 

 merchants, everyone for the time being as his natural propensity 

 impels him. 



" In the bishopric of New Spain, called Antequera, around the 

 valley of Guaxaca, a strange poisonous plant is found which, if 

 given to anyone in food or drink, at once causes death. If it is 

 dried and removed anywhere, according to the time from its being 

 cut, it kills. Thus : if it has been cut for a year, so after a year it 

 causes death ; if for a month, then after a month it brings death. 



" The inhabitants of Macassar in the island of Celebes obtain 

 from a certain tree growing there a most deadly and virulent poison, 

 in which they dip their weapons. So pestiferous is this poisonous 

 tree, that the earth around it for some distance produces neither 

 grass nor vegetable life of any kind. Although instant death may 

 sometimes be avoided by means of antidotes, yet the victim is 

 doomed to die even after a lapse of two or three years. Married 

 men and Mushroom-eaters are more subject to the action of this 

 poison than other people. 



" Ophiusa, in the island of Elephantine, in Ethiopia, has a livid 

 and horrid appearance. If persons drink it they become dreadfully 

 afraid of serpents — so much so, that they commit suicide. Palm 

 wine, however, is said to counteract its influence. 



