ACCOUNT OF THE UPAS TREE. 
branches subulate. Frut a drupe of an 
oval form, velvety, the outside formed by 
the adnate involucre, marked with a few 
indistinct scales of a purple colour: Nut 
large, oval; the festa crustaceous, dark 
brown, containing the large embryo, des- 
titute of albumen. Cotyledons large. Ra- 
dicle superior. 
TAB. XVII. Fig. 1. 1. Receptacles of male flowers, 
slightly magnified. 2. Single flower from the re- 
ceptacle. 3. Female involucre, including its flower 
with the two cells, nat. size. 4. Section of ditto 
magnified, Section of the fruit, showing the 
Net with the Embryo, nat, size. 
, 
, 
Such is the account I have been able to 
draw up, from the drawing and notes sent 
to me by M. Spanoghe, aided by flowers, 
male and female, and perfect fruit, pre- 
served in spirits. I confess, I at first en- 
tertained doubts, whether I ought not to 
refer this plant to the Antiaris macro- 
phylla of Mr. Brown, described by him, 
and found on the North coast of New Hol- 
land, rather than to the Javanese A. fozi- 
caria. In the form and size of its leaf, it 
agrees best with the former; while in the 
flowers and fruit, it has the most entire ac- 
cordance with the latter: and even in re- 
gard to the foliage, I have only to remark, 
: that the leaves are larger, and less obtuse, 
than in the figure given by Leschenault. 
Mr. Brown describes the leaves as “ gla- 
-berrima," in Leschenault's and our plant 
they are rough with pubescence, both above 
and beneath: while, in Mr. Brown's plant, 
the involucres, both male and female, and 
the apex of the fruit, are far more scaly, 
and strongly ciliated, and, as well as the 
calycine leaflets, even villous. There is, 
then, I am persuaded, every reason to be- 
lieve our species to be the same with the 
- famous “ Poison Upas of Java,” to which 
Mr. Brown's An£iaris is also very closely 
allied. 
Not only was the Poison Upas clearly 
defined by M. Leschenault, but to him we 
are indebted for the first authentic account 
of its history and properties; and as these 
are little known to the English reader, I 
‘shall offer no apology for making the fol- 
lowing extracts from that gentleman’s high- 
311 
ly interesting memoir, published in the 
l6th volume of the Annales du Muséum 
d'Histoire Naturelle, p. 459, &c. 
* [n equatorial regions, the juices of 
plants, being continually, as it were, dis- 
tilled by the effects of their never-checked 
vegetation, possess much stronger pro- 
perties than those of temperate countries, 
and in both beneficial and noxious plants 
they are more powerful. This fact is proved 
by the great number of valuable productions 
which we are obliged, at great cost, to 
procure from hot climates, for our use ` 
both in the arts and medicine. If some 
of these products can be replaced by ana- 
logous vegetables, growing in our own re- 
gions, the quality of the latter is sure to 
be very inferior, and their efficacy much 
less considerable. 
“Tt cannot admit of doubt that those ve- 
must be eminently virulent: 
poisons, which often minister to the cru- 
elty and cowardice of those who employ 
them, are concealed in different forms in 
their respective plants, various processes 
being used to extract them. Man, who ever 
avails himself of all the means that can 
add to his power, seems to have detected 
this fatal secret of nature almost every 
where, and to have increased its effects 
in many different ways, both by the sub- 
stances that he has added to augment the 
activity of these poisons, and by the man- 
ner in which he has employed them. 
« The use of poisoned arrows may be 
traced back to very remote antiquity; the 
Gauls employed them, but only in the 
chase; while the Scythians and Brach- 
mans attacked the Macedonians with them. 
Still, universal as is the use of these wea- 
pons in the hot regions of both hemi- 
spheres, our European travellers, either 
deceived by the natives who always make 
a great secret of these direful preparations, 
or careless about obtaining the necessary 
details, have hitherto given but very vague 
and uncertain information, either as to the 
effects of these poisons, or the plants which 
