MYSORE AND COOEG. 293 



562 Antiaris toxicarra, Leschen. Kan. Jajhugri, 



Jaguri, Ajjanapatte. ; 



mg—Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 307. Wight Ic. L1958. 



References.— FL of Brit. Ind. ; Diet, of Boon. 

 Prod, of Ind.; Brand. For. Fl. 427 ; Pharm. 

 Ind.' 



The upas and sack tree. Common in the "Western 

 Ghats from Bombay to Cape Comorin. Of arbore- 

 scent species this is stated by Beddome to be the 

 lairgest in the above region. It is a magnificent 

 evergreen tree attaining a maximum height of 

 260 feet. Leaves alternate, bifarious, very shortly 

 petiolate, oblong or elliptic-oblong, acuminate, to- 

 mentose or pubescent when young, eventually 

 scabrid or glabrous ; average blade 2 >^ 5^ in. 

 Flowers unisexual — monoecious — unattractive. Fruit 

 like a small fig, pear-shaped, velvetty, purplish, and 

 very bitter; seed poisonous. The poisonous princi- 

 ple antiarin, of which so much nonsense has been 

 written by the Dutch Surgeon, Foersch, is obtained 

 in Java and the Malay Islands, from the green bark 

 and leaves of the tree. The hill-men of Coorg, 

 Wynaad and Travancore, remove cylinders of bark 

 from sized logs of the tree and utilise them as grain 

 sacks. The simple process of manufacturing the 

 latter is well described in the following paragraph 

 by Grraham : — "A branch is cut corresponding to 

 the length and diameter of the sack wanted, soaked 

 a little, and then beaten with clubs till the fibre 

 /separates from the wood. This done, the sack 

 formed of the bark is turned inside out, and pulled 

 down until the wood is sawn off, with the exception 

 'of a small piece left to form the bottom of the sack, 

 which is carefully left untouched." 



These sacks are commonly displayed in Museums 

 as remarkable products of the vegetable kingdom, 

 but in Travancore j Canara, and other hill distiiicjts, 



