POISONS FBOM JUNGLE PLANTS 141 



strictu3, Nees and Ham. {b, batUy h. bSrang, and 6. Umpai), 

 are also used either alone or in combination with other 

 things. They are frequently used with no other 

 adjuncts than pounded glass, and when administered 

 in this way do not seem to cause death directly, but 

 rather to set up a train of symptoms like that of a 

 chronic pseudo-dysentery. Under the microscope 

 these fine hairs {miang rebon{f) are seen as bro\vTi 

 acuminate filaments hke small broken needles. In 

 Kelantan bamboo hairs are sometimes mixed with the 

 juice obtained from biredin (a poisonous palm described 

 below) and an extract of toad. This toad extract is 

 made from the common brown toad by albwdng it to 

 decompose in a bamboo cylinder containing a little 

 water ; after an interval of seven days this is smeared 

 or sprinkled over wearing apparel, and the ingredients 

 are said to set up an incurable and painful skin disease 

 like a ringworm in appearance. The use of miang 

 r^bong as a fish poison is referred to under section 



DfiPU PfiLANDOK. 



BfeBUTA 



The jungle tree bSbuta or bnia-buta (Excoecaria 

 agallocha, Linn.— Enphorbiacese) is so called from the 

 injuries it causes to the eyes; bida means blindness. 

 The hibuta of Kelantan is a small bushy evergreen tree, 

 with bright green and rather thick leaves, found on the 

 sea-coast in tidal jungle growth or brackish backwaters. 

 Excoecaria agallocha is described botanically by 

 Brandis: The bark is grey, smooth, shining, with 

 numerous round prominent lenticels, the wood very soft 

 and spongy. The flower is minute, fragrant, yellowish- 

 green, with catkin-like spikes (male), or pedicelled in 

 short racemes (female). The fruit is a very small 

 capsule, very variable in size, green going to black, 



