164 PLANTS TO BE AVOIDED 



which is as subtle in action as the fabulous upas 

 tree. Fabulous, inasmuch as its repute for far- 

 reaching deadliness is purely fictitious, though of 

 course the upas tree is a scientific reality (Antiaris 

 toxicaria), producing a gum with which the Malays 

 used to poison their darts. 



In another tropical plant, Mucuma pruriens, the 

 offensive agent seems to be purely mechanical. Dr. 

 Collingridge, Medical Officer of Health for the city, 

 has called attention in his recent report to the nefarious 

 use made of it under the name of 'bottled torture.' 

 The pods, four or five inches long, are covered with 

 innumerable barbed hairs, which penetrate the skin 

 with great ease and cause intolerable itching, some- 

 times setting up dangerous inflammation. It seems 

 that the stuff was once in use in this country as a 

 vermifuge, and was lately imported as an interesting 

 novelty for the purpose of practical joking. Certain 

 tradesmen in London, all unaware of the diabolical 

 properties of 'bottled torture,' laid in a stock of it, 

 which, it is reassuring to hear, they promptly destroyed 

 when its true nature was explained to them. 



It is difficult to understand the purpose of this 

 ferocious armature on the fruit of a plant. Most 

 fruits, so far as they are designed in relation to man 

 and other animals, are either rendered as attractive as 

 possible in appearance or esculent properties, or are 

 fitted with special apparatus for clinging to garments, 

 hair, or wool, in order that the seeds may be distri- 

 buted as widely as possible. But Mucuma must be a 

 regular 'nitouche,' desiring nothing but to be left 



