462 THE UNIVERSE. 



branches, yet he experienced no bad effects from this cir- 

 cumstance. 



But it is very diff'erent when the juice of the upas is 

 introduced into the organism by means of the smallest 

 puncture. A wound of this kind destroys a dog in five 

 or six minutes, as Magendie noticed in his experiments. 

 Eight drops of the juice injected into the veins of a horse 

 kill it directly. 



Other plants, more happily gifted, instead of these 

 deadly poisons, elaborate at the same time medicinal 

 agents and nutritive matters. One of these products fur- 

 nishes a remedy in sickness, another increases the luxury 

 of our tables. This is the case with the rhubarbs. Their 

 large roots are quite full of purgative and strengthening 

 principles, whilst their leaves, saturated with acidulous 

 juice, display strong stalks Avhich serve for food. In Eng- 

 land an enormous quantity is consumed in the spring for 

 pastry and side-dishes, and at this time of the year trains 

 of vehicles heavily laden with, rhubarb leaves are seen 

 arriA'ing at the London markets. 



Eor long a kind of sympathy betAveen certain plants 

 has been observed to exist, as if one loved to be under the 

 shade of the other. Thus on the banks of our rivulets the 

 amaranth-coloured^ flowers of the purple loosestrife {Ly th- 

 rum Sulicaria, Linn.) constantly adorn the vicinity of the 

 willow. Other plants, on the contrary, seem to expe- 

 rience an aversion one for the other, and if man incon- 

 siderately compels them to approach each other, they 

 languish or die. The flax plant, for instance, seems to 

 have a manifest antipathy for the scabious {Scabiosa 

 arrensis, Linn.) 



At the present time these peculiarities are explained 



^ A colour incliuing to purple. 



