Antiaris Innoxia

The upas tree. Most exaggerated statements

respecting this plant have passed into history. Its poisonous

influence was said to be so great as not only to destroy all

animal life but even plants could not live within 10 miles of it.

The plant has no such virulent properties as the above, but, as it

inhabits low valleys in Java where carbonic acid gas escapes from

the crevices in volcanic rocks which frequently proves fatal to

animals, the tree was blamed wrongly. It is, however, possessed of

poisonous juice, which, when dry and mixed with other ingredients,

forms a venomous poison for arrows, and severe effects have been

felt by those who have climbed upon the branches for the purpose

of gathering the flowers.