215 
Pahang, Malacca, Penang, Kemaman and Kedah, as also in Java 
and other islands of the Archipelago. 
Like Laportea it is very indicating, but not as virulent as that 
plant. No experiments have been made on the plant to show 
what the irritating poison in the hairs is, but like the Laportea it 
is probably added to the Ipoh poison, merely because it is known 
to be an irritating plant, though it is possible that it may increase 
the flow of blood to the wound, and aid to the absorption of the 
more deadly drugs. 
Exccecaria agallocha L. ( Euphorbiacece ). — Is a small or 
moderate sized tree with an intensely acrid milk. The 
leaves are glossy dark green, rather thick in texture and lan- 
ceolatein outline. The flowers are very small and borne in 
slender green catkins one or two inches in length, and are deli- 
ciously scented. The fruit is a small round capsule. 
Dr. Lewin (Die Pfeilgifte ) states that this plant is used in the 
composition of arrow poison. It is probably used only as an 
irritant to increase the rapidity of action. 
The tree occurs on the banks of tidal rivers and sea-shores all 
through the East Indies from India to Australia. 
Dioscorea d^emona, Roxb. ( Dioscoreacece ) Gadong. — This 
is one of the yams and possesses a tuber from which rises a tall 
glaucous somewhat thorny climbing stem. The leaves are tri- 
foliate with large leaflets 3 to 8 or 9 inches long. The flowers 
very small and greenish white in spikes, unisexual, the 
spikes are panicled, and the panicle is often very long. The 
capsule is about two inches long, oblong three-angled and 
rather more woody than that of most species. 
The tubers are ground and pounded up, and the juice squeezed 
out through a piece of cloth, and mixed with the Antiaris latex 
(Wray), or according to Vaughan Stevens they are cut up 
small and cooked for four hours in as little water as possible. 
Mr. Wray found that the acid juice yielded a yellowish brown 
precipitate to a solution of iodine in iodide of potassium. The 
precipitate redissolved in sulphurous acid and evaporated 
yields long branching needle-like crystals which have an as- 
tringent taste like the juice and are possibly the poisonous prin- 
ciple. Schutte (Pharm. Zeit. fur Russ. XXXVI, 379) has 
examined the toxic alkaloid, Dioscorine, obtained from this 
plant and shows that on- the animal organism it acts as a 
poison resembling picrotoxin. It is a paralysant of the nervous 
system but not a protoplasmic poison. 
The Gadong is often to be seen growing near villages, but I 
have never seen it really wild. The Malays, as also the Sakais 
use the tubers for food, slicing them and washing them in run- 
ning water for a long time to wash out the poisonous principle. 
Amorphophallus Prainii, Hook. fil. (Aroidece), Likir, Lokie, 
Begung. — The large tubers of this aroid are used in the same way 
as those of the Gadong. Like all of the genus the tuber throws 
up a single large leaf at a time. The leaf stalk attains o r ten a 
