146 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



faces were swollen, their color bluish, and their eves 

 yellow. 



" I had occasion to witness another execution at 

 Samarang, when seven Malays were put to death, and 

 the effects of the poison were just the same." 



The Dutch writer gives additional narratives, 

 which we must, however, look upon as fabulous ; but 

 as in the foregoing, he deals with facts which are 

 confirmed by other writers, and are explained by the 

 known violence of the poison, we have mentioned 

 his statements. 



The forests of Java present little that is attract- 

 ive to European explorers, and in passing through 

 them, a feeling of fear is mingled with curiosity. 

 " On all sides," says Schleiden, " palm-trees armed 

 with thorns and long prickles; seeds with their 

 edged leaves sharp as knives, repel with their dan- 

 gerous weapons, all those who attempt to pass into 

 the primitive forest ; and everywhere an undergrowth 

 of formidable nettles threatens the intruder. Great 

 black ants torment the traveller with their danger- 

 ous bites, and crowds of innumerable insects follow 

 and persecute him on his path. After having avoid- 

 ed or overcome all these obstacles, he arrives before 

 massive ramparts of bamboo, thick as the arm and 

 50 feet high, whose hard, glassy bark turns the 

 edge of the best hatchet. When this new obstruction 

 is overcome, the traveller at last reaches the majestic 

 dome of the virgin forest, properly so-called ; gigan- 

 tic trunks of bread-fruit-trees, and of the teak, the 

 wood of which is almost a? hard as iron ; leguminous 



