THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



plants, with their clusters of splendid flowers; bar- 

 ringtonias, fig-trees, and laurels, form the colonnades 

 which support the wonderful leafy vault. 



Monkeys are sporting merrily from branch to 

 branch above him, provoking him by making him 

 the mark at which they throw their fruits ; as he ap- 

 proaches, he sees the orang-outang with severe and 

 melancholy aspect, leaping from a moss-covered rock, 

 and with the aid of a club, making his way into the 

 thicket. The forests abound in animal life, unlike 

 our own silent forests of the West. Here climbing 

 plants rise spirally round the colossal pillars, and 

 overtop the gigantic trees, forming from the root to 

 a height of 100 feet, nothing but a single leafless 

 rope. The enormous leaves green and glossy, alter- 

 nate with huge tendrils which support them, while 

 fragrant umbels composed of rich clusters of white 

 flowers, hang about in all directions. This plant, of 

 the family of the Apocyneal (Strychnos tiente\ fur- 

 nishes in its roots the terrible rajah upas, or poi- 

 son of princes. 



A tiger having received the very slightest wound 

 with a weapon that has been dipped in this poison, 

 or struck with a little wooden arrow blown through 

 the tube called the sarba-cane, begins to tremble, 

 stands on his feet for a minute, and then tumbles 

 over as if struck by lightning, and dies in convul- 

 sions. Curiously enough, the part of this tree that 

 rises above the earth, is harmless, and even the sap 

 has no dangerous properties. As the traveller ad- 

 vances, he meets with a splendid tree, the trunk of 



