208 On the Poison Tree of Java. [Marcu, 
The antshar, like the trees in its neighbourhood, is on all sides 
surrounded by shrubs and plants; in no instance have I observed 
the ground naked or barren in its immediate circumference. 
The largest tree I met with in Blambangan was so closely en- 
vironed by the common trees and shrubs of the forest in which it 
grew, that it was with difficulty I could approach it. Several vines 
and climbing shrubs, in complete health and vigour, adhered to it 
and ascended to nearly half its height. And at the time I visited 
the tree and collected the juice, | was forcibly struck with the 
egregious misrepresentation of Foersch. Several young trees spon- 
taneously sprung from seeds that had fallen from the parent, re- 
minded me of a line in Darwin’s Botanic Garden :— 
‘* Chained at his reot two scion Demons dwell,” 
While in recalling his beautiful description of the oopas, my 
vicinity to the tree gave me reason to rejoice that it is founded on 
fiction. The wood of the antshar is white, light and of a spongy 
appearance. 
Description of the Tshittik.—The fructification of the tshittik is 
still unknown; after all possible research in the district where it 
grows, § have not been able to find it in a flowering state.—It is a 
large winding shrub. 
The root extends creeping to a considerable distance, parallel to 
the surface of the earth, sending off small fibres at different curves, 
while the main root strikes perpendicularly into the ground. 
In large individuals it has a diameter of two or three inches; it 
is covered with a reddish-brown bark, containing a juice of the 
same colour, of a peculiar pungent, and somewhat nauseous odour. 
From this bark the poison is prepared. 
The stem, which in general is shrubby, sometimes acquires the 
size of a small tree; it is very irregular in its ascent and distribu- 
tion: having made several large bends near the surface of the earth 
it divides (at long intervals) into numerous branches, which attach 
themselves to the neighbouring objects and pursue a winding course, 
at no great distance from the ground and nearly parallel to it. In 
some instances the stem rises and ascends to the top of large trees ; 
its form is completely cylindrical, and it is covered with a grey 
spotted bark. 
The lesser branches arise from the stem in pairs (opposite). and 
are very long, slender, cylindrical, divergent, or spreading, and’ 
covered with a smooth grey shining bark; on these the leaves are 
placed opposite, in single pairs or on a common footstalk, pinnate 
in two or three pairs; they are egged, spear-shaped, entire, ter- 
minating in a long narrow point, completely smooth, and shining 
on the upper surface, with a few parallel veins beneath.—The 
petioles are short and somewhat curved. ‘Towards their extremity 
the shoots produce cirrhi or tendrils, which appear without any 
regular distribution opposite to the leaflets; and some branches are 
