172 MALAY POISONS AND CHARM CUBES 



(antiarin) taken internally by the mouth is harmless to 

 human beings ; but the poison of the latter (brucine) 

 may well be harmful. 



THE UPAS TREE 



The celebrated deadly upas or anchor tree of Java, 

 which was at one time supposed to give off poisonous 

 fumes fatal to animal Hfe, is the Malay pokok if oh or 

 hatang ipoh* It is Antiaris toxicaria, BL— UrticacesB, 

 and has been botanically described by Kidley as follows : 

 " A gigantic tree, attaining a height of over a hundred 

 feet and a diameter of four or more above the base where 

 it throws out large buttresses. The bark is grey, about 

 half an inch thick. Like nearly all of our largest trees, 

 it drops the lower branches as it grows, so that a large 

 specimen has a perfectly bare 'trunk for some sixty or 

 eighty feet. The leaves vary very much in size and 

 hairiness, they are generally oblong-acuminate, inequi- 

 lateral, from four to six inches long, and two or three 

 inches broad, the leaf-stalk a quarter of an inch long, 

 the backs of the leaves as well as the buds are covered 

 with yellow hairs, and the upper surface of the leaf is 

 more or less hairy, especially in the case of young leaves, 

 though older ones are often glabrous above. The male 

 inflorescence is a small, fleshy green disc-shaped body 

 on a short peduncle ; and the flowers which are very 

 small are imbedded in it. The female flowers are small, 

 solitary, pear-shaped bodies with a pair of long, thread- 

 like styles. The fruit is a globular succulent drupe 

 about a third of an inch long, velvety and .of a deep 

 claret colour, and bears the remains of the styles. It 

 contains a single, round seed " (Ref. 18). 



Blume describes the fruit as of an elongate ellipsoid 

 form and as big as a plum ; but Ridley's specimens. 



