18}7.] . On the Poison Tree of Java. 207 
rower towards the base, entire, with a waving or undulated margin, 
which sometimes has a few irregular sinucsities. The longitudinal 
nerve divides the leaf somewhat obliquely, and the inferior division 
is generally the larger. The point is irregular; some are rounded 
at the end, others run off almost abruptly toa short point. The 
upper surface is shining and nearly smooth; some widely dispersed 
short villi are observed on it; the inferior surface is lightly rough, 
reticulated, and marked with oblique-parallel veins. The petiole is 
short. The flowers are produced towards the extremity of the 
outer branches, in a few scattered catkins; the common peduncle 
of the males is slender and long; that of the females is shorter. 
Previous to the season of flowering, about the beginning of June, 
the tree sheds its leaves, which re-appear when the male flowers 
have completed the office of fecundation. It delights in a fertile 
and not very elevated soil, and is only found in the largest forests. 
I first met with it (the antshar) in the province of Poegar, on my 
way to Banjoowangee; in the province of Blambangan I visited 
four or five different trees, from which this description has been 
made, while two of them furnished the juice for the preparation of 
the oopas. The largest of these trees had, where the oblique 
appendages of the stem entered the ground, a diameter of at least 
ten feet ; and where the regularly round and straight stem began, 
the extent of at least ten feet between the points of two opposite 
appendages at the surface of the ground, its diameter was full 
three feet. I have since found a very tall tree in Passooroowangy 
near the boundary of Malang, and very lately I have discovered 
several young trees in the forests of Japara, and one tree in the 
vicinity of Onarang. In all these places, though the inhabitants are 
unacquainted with the preparation and effect of the poison, they dis- 
tinguish the tree by the name of Antshar. From the tree 1 found 
in the province of Passooroowang I collected some juice, which 
was nearly equal in its operation to that of Blambangan. One of 
the experiments to be related below was made with the oopas_pre- 
ared by myself, after my return to the chief village. I had some 
difficulty in inducing the inhabitants to assist me in collecting the 
juice, as they feared a cutaneous eruption and inflammation, re- 
sembling, according to the account they gave of it, that produced 
by the ingas of this island, the rhus vernix of Japan, and the rhus 
radicans of North America: but they were only affected by a slight 
heat and itching of the eyes. In clearing the new grounds in the 
environs of Banjoowangie for cultivation, it is with much difficulty 
the inhabitants can be made to approach the tree, as they dread the 
cutaneous eruption which it is known to produce when newly cut 
= But except when the tree is largely wounded, or when itis 
felled, by which a large portion of the juice is disengaged, the 
effluvia of which mixing with the atmosphere, affect the persons 
exposed to it with the symptoms just mentioned, the tree may be 
approached and ascended like the other common trees in the forests, 
