VEGETABLE POISONS. 339 



The materials employed by the natives for poisoning, 

 or rather stupefying, fish, a custom as prevalent all over 

 Polynesia as it is amongst the Indians of America, are 

 the square fruit of the Vutu rakaraka (Barringtonia spe- 

 ciosa, Linn.) and the stem and leaves of the Duva gaga 

 (Derris uliginosa, Benth.), both plants growing in abun- 

 dance on the sea-beach, just above high-water mark. As 

 soon as these materials, pounded to render them more 

 efficacious, are thrown into the water, or drawn through 

 it by means of a line or creeper to which they have been 

 attached, the fish turn on their back and appear on the 

 surface. They are perfectly stupefied, and are thus easily 

 taken ; but they soon recover their lost activity, and are 

 believed not to die from the effects of the treatment 

 they have received. 



The nettles, those mosquitoes of the vegetable king- 

 dom, irritating but never killing as they do, are collec- 

 tively termed " Salato" a name also including those ani- 

 mals familiarly known as sea-nettles. There are two 

 kinds. The Saloto ni coro is an annual weed (Fleurya 

 spicata, Gaud., var. interrupt^ Wedd.), which abounds 

 about towns and villages (hence the specific appellation 

 of " ni coro ") ; and although the virulence of its sting 

 is not to be compared with that of our European nettles, 

 the natives so carefully avoid all contact with it, and ran 

 aw r ay in such fright when I gathered specimens of it for 

 the herbarium, that one is tempted to fancy their skins 

 more keenly affected by it than ours. Still greater is 

 their dread of an Urticaceous tree (Laportea, sp.), forty 

 to fifty feet high, which they simply term " Salato " 

 (nettle), and which, when touching the skin, produces 



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