Upas Tree

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the Antiaris toxicaria, a large tree growing in Java. Stem naked for the first 60, 70, or 80 feet of its height; leaves alternate, stipulate, entire, unequal-sided, subcordate, costatelyveined; flowers in axillary or lateral drooping peduncles, monœcious; males numerous, inclosed in a hairy involucre calyx with three or four divisions, anthers sessile, three or four; females solitary, calyx in several divisions with a long bipartite style, and ultimately bearing a succulent drupaceous fruit. The inspissated juice of the upas tree constitutes a virulent poison called by the natives antjar, which owes its deleterious character to the presence of strychnine. The smallest wound by an arrow tipped with this poison is fatal. Toward the close of the 18th century a Dutch surgeon, Foersch, circulated in Europe various myths with regard to the upas tree. It was said to be so deadly that the poison was collected by criminals condemned to death, who obtained their pardon if they brought away the poison which was, however, found fatal to 18 out of every 20 who made the attempt. It was destructive to all vegetable life but its own, and grew in the midst of a desert which it had made. It is now known that the upas tree was credited with the destruction of animal life really attributable to the escape of carbon dioxide from a vent or vents in a valley surrounded by vol- It has been seen growing with canoes. other trees in forests, and in 1844 was introduced into foreign hothouses with no deleterious effect.