274 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



kinds from Portugal." The Pepper-plant too, which has so 

 often been mentioned before, grows in great abundance both 

 in Java and Sumatra; plants likewise of the interesting 

 Cycas tribe are found in numbers in some of these islands, 

 and impenetrable Bamboo-forests of great extent and beauty 

 everywhere form a feature in the landscape. 



One very remarkable feature of vegetation in the Island 

 of Java is the poisonous Upas-tree (Antiaris Toxicaria), 

 allied to the Nettle tribe ( Urticea) ; but let us beware, 

 whilst exploring the island in search of it, how we approach 

 the limits of a mournful valley, near the town of Batur, 

 called the Valley of Death, or Poison Yalley (Guevo Upas}. 

 As we learn from Dr. Daubeny's work on YolcaiioeSj 

 there is "an abundant evolution of carbonic acid gas" 

 issuing from this valley, which exerts a deadly influence on 

 animal life. "Every living thing that enters this fatal 

 valley is arrested there by instant death ; and as the same 

 fate awaits any one who may go to the rescue, the ground 

 is covered with the bleached bones of numerous animals, as 

 well as of men, who have from time to time approached the 

 precincts. By combining the accounts given of this valley 

 with those respecting the malignant qualities of the Upas- 

 tree, a monstrous fable has been concocted, to which cur- 



