2,62 ADDITIONAL NOTES.

branches, covered with a rough dark bark. The wood, he adds, is very ſolid, of a pale yellow, and variegated with black ſpots, but the frudtification is yet unknown.

Profeſlor Thunberg ſuppoſes the Boa Upas to be a Ceſtrum, or a tree of the ſame nätural family; and de- ſcribes a Ceſtrum ofthe Cape of Good Hope, the juice of which the Hottentots mix with the venom of a certain ſerpent, which i5-1a1d to Mereaſe. me deleterious qua- lity of them both.

The Boa Upas tree 1s eaſily recogniſed at a diſtance, being always ſolitary, the ſoil around it being barren, and 23 it were burnt up; the dried juice. is dark brown, ligut- fying by heat, like other refins» It is colle&ed with the greateſt caution, the perſon having his head, hands, and feet carefully covered with linen, that his whole body may be prote&ed from the vapour as well as from the drop- pings of the tree. No one can approach ſo near as to gather the juice, hence they ſupply bamboos, pointed like a ſpear, which they thruſt obliquely, with great force, into the trunk; the juice oozing out oradually fills the upper joint; and the nearer the root the wound is made, th€ more virulent the poiſon is ſuppoſed to be. Sometimes upwards of twenty reeds are left fixed in the tree for three or four days, that the juice may collect and harden

;n the cavities; the upper joint of the reed is then cut oft

2 SRE Se EEE RIE