THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 461 



In the midst of this fearful cohort of deadly plants, the 

 npas-tree of Java stands prominently out as one of those 

 which distil the most terril)le juices. Its action is such 

 that a AYcapon dipped in it at once kills any animal it stiikes. 

 Travellers relate having seen seA^eral women guilty of 

 adultery die in six minntes after being pricked below the 

 bosom with a lancet di^jped in the juice of this tree. 



No tree has been the subject of so many ridiculous 

 fables as the upas, and till quite lately they were popu- 

 larly believed. On the faith of a Dutch surgeon named 

 Foersche, it was related that the upas flowed from a 

 unique and singular tree, which vegetated in the midst of 

 a frightful solitude in Java, "the valley of death." Ac- 

 cording to this traveller, no living creature could resist the 

 poisonous vapours which it exhaled, and for three or four 

 leagues around only dead bodies and skeletons of men 

 and animals were to be met with. The birds themselves 

 which ventured into the surrounding air fell to the ground 

 as if struck by lightning. Criminals condemned to capital 

 punishment alone essayed the task of wresting its infernal 

 produce from the tree. Many tried the perilous journey, 

 but very few returned from it. 



It is disgraceful to be oltliged to admit, that Ave owe 

 the refutation of this fabulous narrative to so recent a 

 writer as Leschenault. This traveller noticed, that the 

 famous poison is furnished by two species of trees which 

 groAv amid the forests of Java. So far from exercising a 

 deleterious influence upon all that surrounds them, they 

 are encompassed by a luxurious vegetation, while birds, 

 lizards, and insects lend animation to their boughs and 

 foliage. The learned Frenchman, while examining one of 

 these trees which he had had cut down, had his foce and 

 hands covered with exudation flowing from the broken 



