The bohan is a large tree, which this writer considers a new genus: the other plant, yielding an equally powerful poison, is of the wood bine genus. The upas, or poisonous juice, is extracted by an incision in the bark with a knife, and carefully collected and preserved by the natives to be used in their wars. As to its diffusing noxious effluvia in the atmosphere, and destroying all vegetation around it, the absurdity of these stories is best exposed by the fact, that the climbing species requires the support of other plants to attain its usual growth. Dr. Delille made several experiments with the upas on dogs and cats. An incision was made in the thigh of a dog, and eight grains of upas dropped into it: shortly after the dog began to vomit, and continued vomiting at intervals, till he became convulsed, the muscles of his head greatly distorted, and he died in twenty minutes. Six grains were put into the thigh of another dog, which also vomited first his undigested food, next a white foam, and died, contracted and convulsed, in fifteen minutes. A cat was also treated in like manner; but she was still sooner and more convulsed, and her muscles contracted: she continued leap. ing up for a few minutes, and fell down dead. All these animals died crying and in great agony. After repeating a number of experiments on the deleterious and prompt effects of this powerful poison, when applied externally, the author gave a grain and a half to a dog, which he took into his stomach, but it only produced a slight purging. To another four grains were given, which in about four hours produced both vomiting and purging, and the dog died in the course of half a day. On examining the bodies of these animals after death, no very extraordinary appearances were disco⚫ vered; the ventricles of the heart were full of blood, and some slight traces of inflammation appeared in the stomach; but the derangement was not so great as might have been expected from such a violent and sudden death. From this circumstance, the author concluded that the absorbents had transmitted the poison to the nerves of the stomach, and that this peculiar vegetable poi. son acts exclusively on the nerves.

Messrs. Majendie and Delille have communicated to the class their experiments made on animals by means of the matter with which the natives of the Isles of Java and of Borneo poison their

arrows.

M. Vauquelin has also made some experiments of this kind: at the end of his chemical analysis of the juice of the belladonna, he speaks of the effects of this substance on animals. Those which he forced to swallow it, fell down as if intoxicated, in a delirium precisely sumilar to that produced by opium.

M. Sage has reported on the same subject some more experiments, which chance threw in his way, or which he collected from others, and which confirm the action of this juice on the nervous system, and particularly on the brain.

A young practitioner in medicine, whose name has been mentioned in former.annual reports, M. Nysten, has attempted to ascertain the effects of different gases injected into the blood-vessels of animals: he used the greater part of the gases with which we are acquainted. Atmospheric air, oxygen gas, the oxidulated azotic, carbonic acid, carbonic, phosphuretted and hydrogenated gases, &c. are in no respect deleterious. The oxy-muriatic, nitrous acid, and ammoniacal gases, seem to act by very violently irritating the right auricle and the pulmonary ventricle. The sulphuretted hydrogen, oxide of azote, aud azotic gases, injure the contractile power of these parts: others also change the nature of the blood so com. pletely, that respiration can no longer convert it from venous blood into arterial, &c.

[Mem. de St. Instit. Nat. 1809.

CHAP. VI.

PLANTS CURIOUS OR USEFUL IN THE ARTS.

SECTION I.

Kadsi, or Paper-tree of Japan.

Morus Papyrifera.-LINN.

THE Morus or Mulberry genus contains seven species, mostly na

tives of hot climates. Of these two are of great use in the arts : Morus tinctoria, or fustic-wood, a fine American timber tree affording a principal ingredient in most of our yellow dyes, for which purpose this material is an extensive object of commerce; and morus papyrifera, or kadsi of Japan, from which the ingenious natives manufacture their beautiful and glossy paper. This tree is also found in Otaheite and others of the Australasian or South Sea Islands, where the bark is spun into the finest sort of cloth. It has of late years been propagated from seeds in France, and in a sandy soil, is said to thrive better than the common mulberry. Like the last, its leaves are also an excellent food for the silk-worms.

The following is the process pursued in Japan for converting the bark of the kadsi into paper. Every year, when the leaves of the paper-tree fall off, the young shoots are cut into sticks about three feet long, and being tied up in bundles are boiled with water till the bark shrinks from the wood. The sticks are then exposed to the air till they grow cold, and being slit open length-ways, the bark is taken off, dried, and carefully preserved. Afterward, being soaked in water till it is soft, it is scraped, and the stronger bark, which is a full year's growth, is separated from the thinner, which covered the younger branches, the former yielding the best and whitest paper. The bark being then cleansed from all knots and impurities, is boiled in clear lye, and constantly stirred about till it becomes so tender, that on being slightly touched, it will separate into small fibres. The bark thus softened is washed in a river in sieves, and constantly stirred about with the hands, till it is diluted into a soft delicate wooly substance, and then put upon a thick, smooth, wooden table,

to be beat with sticks till it resembles the pulp of soaked paper. The bark thus prepared is put into a narrow tub, with the slimy infusion of rice, and the infusion of the oreni root, which is also slimy and mucous; which being mixed into an uniform liquid substance, by stirring it with a thin reed, the sheets are formed one by one, by taking up this liquid substance in a proper mould made of bulrushes instead of wire, carefully laid one upon another, on a table covered with a double mat, while a small piece of reed is put between every sheet; which standing out a little, serves in time to lift them up conveniently, and take them off singly. Every heap is covered with a small board of the same shape and size with the paper, on which are laid weights, which are at first small ones, lest the sheets, which are as yet wet and tender, should be pressed together into one lump; but by degrees are added more and heavier, to squeeze out the water. The next day the weights are taken off, and the sheets lifted up one by one, and with the palm of the hand clapt to long planks, and exposed to the sun: when fully dry, they are taken off, laid up in heaps, pared round, and then kept for use or sale.

[Seba. Kampfer. Amænitates.

SECTION 11.

Cotton-plant.

Gossipium.

THIS genus produces ten species of trees, shrubs, or herbaceous plants; a few of them natives of America, but by far the greater number of Asia.

Most of these afford a wool that may be usefully applied to me. chanical or domestic purposes, or woven into cloths. The cotton shrubs of the American islands grow without the smallest cultiva tion, but their wool is coarse and short, and hence cannot easily be spun; if imported into Europe it might answer the purpose of felts in the manufacture of hats; but it is generally consumed by the inhabitants themselves, as stuffing for pillows and mattresses.

The generality of the West India species are annuals; but G. ar. boreum of India is a perennial tree, both in root and branch, rising in a straight line about eight feet high, with leaves in five palmate lobes: the lobes lanceolate, obtuse, and mucronate.

native of the East Indies; a pubescent herb; with the stem spotted with black at its top; leaves downy, penduncles branched, shorter than the petioles; outer calyx three-parted, with heart-shape, cut segments dotted with black; corol one-petalled, with a short tube, five-parted, the segments pale yellow, with five red spots at bottom; capsule three-valved, three-celled. The pods are not unfrequently as large as middling-sized apples. The common cotton plant thrives best in respect of pod in new grounds; but best in respect of fruit in dry stony ground that has been tilled already; and hence such is the soil generally preferred by our planters. The period of cultivation commences in March and April, and continues during the spring rains. The holes for the seeds are made in distinct rows, something like hop-planting, at a distance of seven or eight feet from each other; the seeds are thrown in and earthed over; and when they have shot forth to the height of five or six inches, all the stems are pulled up, excepting two or three of the strongest. These are cropped twice before the end of August, nor do they bear fruit till after the second pruning. By such repeated croppings, the plant, though naturally an annual, may be prolonged and made to bear sufficiency of fruit to repay the planter for three years, yet it is better to renew them, if there be opportunity. When the cotton is gathered in, the seeds are picked out from the wool, by means of a cotton-mill, of a simple contrivance, and perfectly adequate to the purpose.

The cotton shrub of China is rendered essentially useful in that country. When the husbandman has got in his harvest, then he sows cotton in the same fields; and raking the earth over the seeds, a shrub about two feet high is produced, the flowers of which appear by the middle of August. These are generally yellow, but sometimes red. The flower is succeeded by a small button of the size of a nut, which opens in three places; aud on the fortieth day after the appearance of the flower, discovers three or four wrappings of cotton extremely white, and of the same form as the cod of the silk-worm; this being fastened to the bottom pod, contains seed for the following year. It is then the season for getting in the crop; but in fair weather they leave it to be exposed two or three days to the heat of the sun, which causing it to swell, increases its value. As all the fibres of the cotton are strongly fastened to the seeds they inclose, the people make use of an engine to separate them. It