UPAS TREES. 53 



tree which I had an opportunity of observing through 

 the kindness of Captain Bethune, R.N. C.B., who 

 allowed me to accompany him to Borneo, in May, 

 1845, and gave me every facility for examining the 

 jungles which the disturbed state of the country would 

 admit, and which were in his power, many absurd 

 stories were related to me by the natives, similar to 

 those published by Mr. Foersch, of the Dutch East 

 India Company, in the 'London Magazine' for Sep- 

 tember, 1785 ; and it seems very curious that, having 

 this tree before them, which was surrounded by their 

 graves, they should tell me it was impossible to go 

 under it without dying. 



On my insisting, however, I got one of them to 

 climb up to get me some specimens, but they were 

 neither in flower nor fruit. The poisonous sap flows 

 freely from the bark when tapped, and Dr. Horsfield, 

 whose admirable account of it was first published in 

 the Batavian Transactions (vol. vii.) and afterwards by 

 Sir Stamford Raffles, (Hist. Arch. vol. i.) tells us that 

 it is equal in potency, when thrown into the circula- 

 tion, to any animal poison yet known. Several in- 

 teresting experiments with it, in prepared and natural 

 states, are detailed in the paper alluded to. The 

 tree is called ' Bina ' by the Borneans, and has a 

 fine appearance. The specimen at Borneo was about 

 sixty feet high, with a fine stem, the bark of which 

 was of a very white colour : it was supported at its 

 base by those processes resembling buttresses, which 

 are so common to the trees of tropical jungles. 



A poison of greater potency was said to be manu- 



