PLANTS. 299 



Privet or Prim (Ligustrum vulgare), a bush with 

 leaves lanceolate, smooth, and thick. Flowers white, 

 agreeably odorous, in clusters or terminal panicles ; ber- 

 ries black, filled with pulp of a purplish-red color ; native 

 of Europe, found in woods and hedges. The hard wood 

 is used by turners. 



FORTY-SECOND FAMILY. DATURA. (Class 5, L.) 

 Nux Vomica (Strychnos nux vomica) is a tree of con- 

 siderable size, with a thick crown of oval-shaped, bald 

 awnless greenish-white leaves; flowers clustering and 

 umbellate. Native of the East Indies, where it is often 

 met with. Fruit contains three to four round, smooth, 

 nut-like seeds, surrounded with a mass of pulp, which is 

 not at all poisonous. These seeds, called Crow's Eyes, 

 are remarkably bitter and highly poisonous. The far- 

 famed Boa Upas Tree of Java, of which travelers have 

 given such exaggerated accounts, belongs also to this 

 family. They tell us of its growing in a valley, and 

 being so fearfully poisonous that everything, whether 

 animal or vegetable, found within a few leagues of it, is 

 aifected by its poisonous influence. As the tale goes, a 

 poisonous gum exudes from its bark ; criminals con- 

 demned to death, are sent to gather it ; any one who 

 returns from the tree unpoisoned, bringing the gum as 

 witness of his having been there, is pardoned ; this is 

 sometimes the case when the wind is favorable, for if the 

 poisonous breath of the tree reaches the unhappy culprit 

 he is lost. This account of the Upas Tree, which has 

 supplied Dr. Darwin with a highly poetical description, 

 although now confuted, has heretofore generally been 

 believed ; nevertheless, as in most similar accounts, there 

 is some truth present, although mixed up with much fic- 

 tion. It is highly dangerous to sleep under any tree of 



