ITS EXCEEDING VALUE. 415 



taste. The natives boil it whole, or cut it into slices for roasting, and 

 prepare it for the table in numerous other modes. Two or three 

 trees, it is said, suffice for the provisioning of one man. My readers 

 will remember that its % introduction in the West Indian Islands was 

 signalized by the famous Mutiny of the Bounty, and led indirectly to 

 the settlement of Pitcairn's Island ; thus originating a strange and 

 sufficiently poetical romance. 



In the forests of Ceylon also flourish the Cambogia Outtu, the 

 Stalagmites Cambogioides, and the Garcinia morella (family Gutti- 

 ferce), whence camboge is extracted. This substance, at once medici- 

 nal and tinctorial, exudes in a liquid state from wounds made in the 

 bark of the trees ; it solidifies spontaneously in the vessels wherein 

 it is collected. 



Immense forests overspread the humid plains of Sumatra. They 

 are constituted in the main of numerous species of Fig-trees (Ficoidce), 

 whose abundant and persistent leaves form an obscure vault, impene- 

 trable by the sun's "golden arrows." Above this leafy dome shoot 

 the rigid trunks of trees of lofty stature. Of these, the most remark- 

 able, perhaps, is the Ipo-antiar (Antiaris toxicaria), whose juice, after 

 having undergone certain preparations, becomes one of the deadliest 

 known poisons. It was for a long time unknown with what sub- 

 stance the Malays envenomed their arrows and their famous kris, or 

 crease ; nor was it until the beginning of the present century that 

 the traveller Leschenault ascertained, not without difficulty, that it 

 had for its basis the juice of a very tall tree, with decaying leaves, to 

 which he gave the name of Antiaris toxicaria. This is the celebrated 

 Upas, whose deadly properties were formerly exaggerated in so many 

 wonderful fables. The poison is prepared in an earthen vessel, and 

 mixed up with certain quantities of the seed of the pimento and the 

 pepper tree, and the roots of various kinds of ginger. These are 

 mixed together slowly, except the pimento-grains, which are precipi- 

 tated one by one to the bottom of the vessel by means of a small 

 stick. Each grain produces a slight fermentation, and rises to the 

 surface. It is then extracted, to be plunged anew into the mixture, 



