Botany and Zoology. 447 
this account, was eaten with the leaves of three vegetables which were 
other Polynesians, they prepare an intoxicating drink, from the root of 
for whom they perform the office. ... Some Fijians make it a point to chew 
as great a quantity as possible in one mouthful; and there is a man of 
which it is inferred, that, if the Polynesians are of Malayan origin, they 
must have left the cradle of their race before the extraction of toddy from 
the cocoa-nut tree, or even the tree itself, was known there. In , this 
palm itself is thought to have made its way by the drifting of its fruits 
across the Pacific from east to west, through the Polynesian Islands, and 
to have reached Ceylon within what. may be called historical times. 
6. Vegetable Poisons, Under this head is an interesting account of the 
kau-karo (literally Itch-wood), the Oncocarpus Vitiensis A. Gray, which 
acts like the Poison Rhus of North America and of Japan, only with ten- 
fold virulence. Indeed, a drop of the juice, falling upon the hand of one of 
. Seemann’s companions, “ instantly produced a pain equal to that pro- 
duced by contact with a red-hot poker.” The Hxcecaria Agallocha, 
known through the East, is equally virulent with its ally the Manchineel 
tree i 
tcinal Plants. None of real importance are brought to light. 8. Scents 
d 
the better sorts are now cultivated with success; of Timber, the most 
