THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. i\ 



POISON-TREES OF JAVA. The Upas-Tree. 

 Many trees produce poison like the curare that 

 grows on the Orinoco, and the woorare, which is 

 found on the banks of the Amazon ; but the most ter- 

 rible of all is the upas, which grows in several parts 

 of East India, in Java, Borneo, Sumatra and the Cel- 

 ebes. 



The Deadly l T pas. 



Rumph, who has given us a description of it, 

 calls it the arbor toxieari. This tree has a thick 

 stem and extended branches. Its bark is brown and 

 knotty ; its wood is hard, of a pale yellow color, and 

 marked with black spots. Of all the different spe- 

 cies of strychnos (from which we obtain strychnine), 

 the upas and the mix vomica furnish the most vio- 

 lent poison. Astonishing facts, and still more aston- 

 ishing fictions are told of this wonderful plant ; we 

 will throw aside the fictions, and endeavor to find in 



