N. 0. URTICACE.E. 1203 



1189. Antiaris toxicaria, Leschen, h.f.b.i., 

 v. 537. 



Vern :— Chandla, chandkuda, charvar mada, karvat or 

 kharvat (Bomb, and Mar.) ; Karwat (Konkan) ; Alii, netavil, 

 netta-vil maram (Tarn.) ; Jazngri, Agganpatte, Jaguri (Kan.) ; 

 Araya- angel} 7 , netta-vil. (Mai.) 



English : —The Upas tree. 



Habitat :— The Deccan Peninsula, on the ghats, from the 

 Concan southwards. According to Beddome, it is the largest 

 tree of the Western forests attaining a height of 250ft. 



A gigantic, ever-green tree, attaining 250ft. Trunk often 

 buttressed. Bark thick, grey. Wood white, soft, even-grained ; 

 -young shoots, petioles and midrib velvety. Leaves glabrous or 

 hairy beneath, 4-8in. glossy, elliptic, acuminate, entire or 

 serrulate ; base rounded or cordate, young lanceolate, serrulate. 

 Petiole £in. Flowers memecious. Males crowded on the surface 

 of the pedunculate and usually fascicled receptacles, which are 

 supported by imbricating bracts ; sepals 3-4 ; stamens 3-8. 

 Females solitary, enclosed in a pear-shaped involucre of numer- 

 ous confluent bracts ; perianth ; ovary aduate to the involucre, 

 Fruit like a small fig, purple scarlet or crimson ; pyriform 

 velvety, fleshy, fin. diam., " Male-receptacles 3-4, together, 

 orbicular ; and pedunales velvety, |in. diam." (J. D. Hooker.) 



Uses : — The juice of the tree is the source of the fabulous 

 Upas poison. The poison at first acts as a purgative and 

 emetic, then as a narcotic causing death by violent fits of 

 tetanic convulsions. 



In the Concan and in Canara, the bitter seeds are used as a 



febrifuge, and in dysentery, one-third to one-half of a seed being 



given three times a day. 



Antiarin, the most important constituent of the milky juice of Antiaris 

 toxicaria, has the formula, C 27 H 42 O 10 -f 4 H 2 O, and antiarosc, C - H 12 5 , a 

 sugar metameric with rhamnose. 



1190. Artocarpus hirsuta, Lamk., h.f.b.i., v. 541. 

 Vern, :— Ranphanas, Pat-phanas (Mar.). Ayni, Anjalli (Tarn.). 



