26 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
twelve or fourteen miles of the tree, not more than 300 re- 
mained in less than two months!" When one tells a fish, 
snake or bear story, he should not be =taggered by facts, 
but represent his creature as the biggest of its kind ! 
Foersch tells us, too, of experiments he personally wit- 
nessed, where the gum of the tree was used in the execution 
of several women ; this by order of the Emperor. But, as 
the tree has long been grown in botanic gardens without 
danger to life or limb, we are obliged to dismiss these ac- 
counts as chimerical. The painful question of veracity is, 
fortunately, not for us to debate. Even the most honest 
travelers, as Mungo Park, Sir John Mandevilie, Messrs. 
Hue and Gobet, and Robinson Crusoe, may prove credulous 
and accept too much on hearsay. 
It is quite possible, moreover, that the stories grew up 
in a perfectly natural way. In the first place, the plant is 
confessedly noxious. Then, it frequently grows in low 
basins, or valleys, rendered dangerous bv the escape of car- 
bon dioxide from volcanic vents. This gas, as everyone 
knows, is very heavy and is retained in such depressions 
as in the cavern of Pausillippo in Italy and elsewhere. Sul- 
phurous acid, equally deleterious, is also given of? by these 
vents, "so that doubtless the upas tree has had to bear the 
opprobrium really due to the volcanoes and their products." 
The plant is, however, unquestionably virulent. "The in- 
ner bark of young trees, w^hich is fashioned into a coarse 
garment, excites a most horrible itching." Is this the 
classic shirt of Nessus? "The dried juice, mixed with other 
ingredients, forms a most venomous poison, in which the 
The tree belongs to the family Artocarpeac, nearly re- 
lated to hemps and nettles. It is monoecious, with unattrac- 
University. 
