OF PLANTS. 205 



the roots of which the dreadful Upas Radia, or Sovereign 

 Poison, is concocted. A slight wound from a weapon 

 poisoned with this, a little arrow made of hard wood, and 

 shot from the blow-tube, as by the South Americans, 

 makes the tiger tremble, stand motionless a minute, then 

 fall as though seized with vertigo, and die in brief but 

 violent convulsions. The shrub itself is harmless, and he 

 whose skin may have been touched with its juice need fear 

 no consequences. As we go forward, we meet with a 

 beautiful slender stem, which overtops the neighbouring 

 plants. Perfectly cylindrical, it rises sixty or eighty feet 

 smooth and without a branch, and bears an elegant 

 hemispherical crown, which proudly looks down on the 

 more humble growths around, and the many climbers 

 struggling up its stem. Woe to him who heedlessly 

 should touch the milk-sap that flows abundantly from its 

 easily wounded bark. Large blisters, painful ulcers, like 

 those produced by our poisonous Sumach, only more dan- 

 gerous, are the inevitable consequences. This is the Antiar 

 of the Javanese, the Pohon Upas (signifying Poison- tree) 

 of the Malays, the Ipo of Celebes and the Phillippines 

 (Antiaris toxicaria, Lesch.). From it comes the common 

 Upas (anglice poison), which is especially employed for 

 poisoning arrows, a custom which appears to have ex- 

 tended formerly throughout all the Sunda Islands, but 

 which is now, since the introduction of fire-arms, only to 

 be met with among the savages of the rugged and in- 

 accessible mountains of the interior of the islands. At 

 once awful and grandly sublime is the character of these 

 mountains, which, like the whole island, owe their origin 

 to the most terrible volcanic forces. Everywhere are still 

 seen the traces of the subterranean fire, even in those 



