A not less terrible poison is furnished by the Liana Tieuté (_Strychnos tieuté_), a member of the family _Loganiaceæ_. It has an exceedingly long stem, but does not yield, like the upas, a whitish milky juice. Its voluminous roots are covered with a thin reddish bark, of a peculiarly bitter taste. By boiling these roots the Javanese obtain the poisonous resin called in Malaysia _Upas tieuté_, and which was at one time supposed to be identical with the essential element introduced by the Indians of South America into their famous _Ourari_ or _Wourali_. Sir Richard Schomburgk, however, has shown that the latter is obtained from the _Strychnos toxifera_, a native of Guiana. There are several other species of Strychnos; all with flattened, disc-like, and silky seeds, surrounded by pulp. _S. nux vomica_, a moderate-sized tree, with fruit much like an orange in appearance, furnishes the valuable medicine and fatal poison--for it is both--called _Nux vomica_. The seeds have an intensely bitter taste, owing to the presence of two most virulent poisons, _Strychnia_ and _Brucia_; but the pulp is innocuous, and greedily devoured by birds. _Strychnos Colubrina_, a native of Malabar, furnished a variety of Snakewood, which in cases of bites by serpents is esteemed an infallible remedy. _S. Pseudo-quina_, which flourishes in Brazil, yields a bark scarcely inferior in value as a tonic and a febrifuge to quinine. * * * * * I have spoken of the abundance and variety of the epiphytous plants which grow profusely in the islands of the Indian Ocean. In Sumatra and in Borneo, the more venerable trees are clothed in a rich garment of lycopodiums and ferns, and these often glow with dazzling orchidaceous flowers, while by their side flourish strange aroidaceæ, with climbing crawling stems, and aërial suckers. But of all these brilliant parasites, the most extraordinary, without doubt, is the _Rafflesia Arnoldi_--a plant without any stem, which grows along the surface of the ground upon the roots of the _lianas_, and principally of the _lissus_, a species of vine peculiar to tropical countries. It was discovered by Dr. Arnold, while in attendance upon Sir Stamford Raffles, Governor of Java. It produces only a fleshy flower, of a wine-like colour, with an intolerably disgusting odour; but it acquires extraordinary, and one might say monstrous dimensions, for it seldom measures less than a yard in diameter, and its weight frequently exceeds four pounds.