part of the Mogul empire, are there celebrated. It is said that 7000 people find ample room to repose under its shade. It has long been the custom of the British residents in India, on their hunting and shooting parties, to form extensive encampments, and spend weeks together, under this magnificent pavilion, which affords a shelter to all travellers, particularly to the religious tribes of the Hindoos. It is generally filled with a variety of birds, snakes, and monkies, the latter of whom both divert the spectator by their antic tricks, and interest him by the parental affection they display to their young offspring, in teaching them to select their food, to exert themselves in jumping from bough to bough, and in taking, as they acquire strength, still more extensive leaps from tree to tree. In these efforts, they encourage them by caresses, when timorous, and menace, and even beat them, when refractory.

THE WEDDED BANIAN TREE.

AMONG the varieties of the Banian, or Burr trees, is the PEIPAL, or ficus religiosa, which is not uncommon in Guzzerat, and causes a singular variety of vegetation. It may be considered as belonging to the order of creepers, and often springs round different trees, particularly the palmyra, or palin. The latter growing through the centre of a banian tree, looks extremely grand. The peipal frequently shoots from old walls, and runs along them, so as to cause a singular phenomenon of vegetation. In the province of Bahar, one of these trees was seen by an English traveller, on the inside of a large brick well, the whole circumference of the internal space of which it lined, and thus actually became a tree turned inside out. A banian tree thus inverted is uncommon; but the general usefulness and beauty of this variety, especially in overshadowing the public wells and village markets, can only be known by those who live in a sultry climate.

THE COCOA-NUT TREE.

Of all the gifts which Providence has bestowed on the oriental world, the cocoa-nut tree is the one most deserving of notice. The blessings which are conveyed to man, by this single production of nature, are incalculable. It

grows in a stately column, from thirty to fifty feet in height, crowned by a verdant capital of waving branches, covered with long spiral leaves under this foliage, bunches of blossoms, clusters of green fruit, and others arrived at maturity, appear in mingled beauty. The trunk, though porous, furnishes beams and rafters for the habitations; and the leaves, when platted together, make an excellent thatch, as well as common umbrellas, coarse mats for the floor, and brooms; while their finest fibres are woven into very beautiful mats for the rich. The covering of the young fruit is extremely curious, resembling a piece of thick cloth, in a conical form, as close and firm as if it came from the loom; it expands after the fruit has burst through its inclosure, and then appears of a coarser texture. The nuts contain a delicious milk, and a kernal sweet as the almond : this, when dried, affords abundance of oil; and when that is expressed, the remains feed cattle and poultry, and make a good manure. The shell of the nut furnishes cups, ladles, and other domestic utensils, while the husk which encloses it is of the utmost importance: it is manufactured into ropes, and cordage of every kind, from the smallest twine to the largest cables, which are far more durable than those of hemp. In the Nicobar islands, the natives build their vessels, make the sails and cordage, supply them with provisions and necessaries, and provide a cargo of arrack, vinegar, oil, jaggree or coarse sugar, cocoa-nuts, coir, cordage, black paint, and several inferior articles, for foreign markets, entirely from this tree.

Many of the trees are not permitted to bear fruit; but the embryo bud, from which the blossoms and nuts would spring, is tied up to prevent its expansion; and a small incision being then made at the end, a cool pleasant liquor, called Tarce, or Toddy, the palm-wine of the poets, oozes out in gentle drops.

THE UPAS, OR POISON TREE.

ALTHOUGH a serious refutation of the gross imposition practised on the people of Europe, by the romance of Foersch on the subject of the UPAS, or celebrated poison-tree of Java, may at this time be in a great measure superfluous, as the world has long ceased to be the dupe of his story, and as regular series of experiments have been instituted,

both in England and in France, to ascertain the nature and potency of the poison; yet an authentic account of this poison, as drawn out by Dr. Horsfield, and published in the seventh volume of the Batavian transactions, cannot fail to be interesting. Almost every one has heard of its fabulous history, which, from its extravagant nature, its susceptibility of poetical ornament, its alliance with the cruelties of a despotic government, and the sparkling genius of Darwin, whose purpose it answered to adopt and personify it as a malignant spirit (in his Loves of the Plants), has obtained almost equal currency with the wonders of the Lernian hydra, or any other of the classic fictions of antiquity.

Although, the Doctor observes, the account published by Foersch, so far as relates to the situation of the poison-tree, to its effects on the surrounding country, and to the application said to have been made of the upas on criminals in different parts of the island, has, as well as the description of the poisonous substance itself, and its mode of collection, been demonstrated to be an extravagant forgery; the existence of a tree on Java, from the sap of which a poison is prepared, equal in fatality, when thrown into the circulation, to the strongest animal poisons hitherto known, is a fact which it is his object to establish and illustrate. The tree which produces this poison is the anchar, and grows in the eastern extremity of the island. The work of Rhumphius contains a long account of the upas, under the denomination of arbor toxicaria. The tree does not grow on Ambonia, and his description was made from the information he obtained from Makasar. His figure was drawn from a branch of what is called the male-tree, sent to him from the same place, and establishes the identity of the poison tree of Makasar, and the other eastern Islands, with the anchar of Java. The simple sap of the arbor toxicaria, (according to Rhumphius) is harmless, and requires the addition of several substances of the affinity of ginger, to render it active and mortal. In so far it agrees with the anchar, which, in its simple state, is supposed to be inert, and, before being employed as a poison, is subjected to a particular preparation. Besides the true poison-tree, the upas of the Eastern Islands, and the anchar of the Javans, this island produces a shrub, which, as far as observations have hitherto been made, is peculiar to the same, and by

a different mode of preparation, furnishes a poison far exceeding the upas in violence. Its name is chetik; but the genus to which it belongs has not yet been discovered or described.

The anchar is one of the largest trees in the forests of Java. The stem is cylindrical, perpendicular, and rises completely naked to the height of sixty, seventy, or eighty feet. It is covered with a whitish bark, slightly bursting in longitudinal furrows. Near the ground this bark is, in old trees, more than half an inch thick, and, upon being wounded, yields plentifully the milky juice from which the celebrated poison is prepared. A puncture or incision being made into the tree, the juice or sap appears oozing out, of a yellowish colour (somewhat frothy) from old, paler, or nearly white, from young ones; exposed to the air, its surface becomes brown. The consistence very much resembles milk; but it is more thick and viscid. This sap is contained in the true bark (or cortex), which, when punctured, yields a considerable quantity, so that in a short. time a cup-full may be collected from a large tree. The inner bark (or liber) is of a close fibrous texture, like that of the morus papyrifera, and, when separated from the other bark, and cleansed from the adhering particles, resembles a coarse piece of linen. It has been worked into ropes, which are very strong; and the poorer class of people employ the inner bark of the younger trees, which is more easily prepared, for the purpose of making a coarse stuff which they wear in working in the fields. But it requires much bruising, washing, and a long immersion, before it can be used; and, when it appears completely purified, persons wearing this dress, being exposed to rain, are affected with an intolerable itching, which renders their flimsy covering insupportable. It appears from the account of the manner in which the poison is prepared, that the deleterious quality exists in the gum, a small portion of which still adhering, produces, when exposed to wet, this irritating effect; and it is singular that this property of the prepared bark is known to the Javans in all places where the tree grows, while the preparation of a poison from its juice, which produces a mortal effect when introduced into the body by pointed weapons, is an exclusive art of the inhabitants of the eastern extremity of the island.

WONDERS OF ART.

PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT.

[See Plates, No. 56, 57, 58.]

THE largest of these stupendous monuments, equally famous for the enormity of their size, and their remote antiquity, are those of Djiza, so called from a village of that name on the bank of the Nile, distant from them about eleven miles. The three which most attract the attention of travellers stand near one another on the west side of the river, almost opposite to Grand Cairo, and not far from the site of the ancient Memphis. When viewed from a distance peering above the horizon, they display the fine transparent hue they derive from the rarified air by which they are surrounded. M. Savary having approached to within three leagues of them, in the night time, while the full moon shone bright upon them, describes them as appearing to him, under this particular aspect, like two points of rock crowned by the clouds. On a nearer approach, their sloping and angular forms disguise their real height, and lessen it to the eye; independently of which, as whatever is regular is great or small by comparison, and as these masses of stone eclipse in magnitude every surrounding object, at the same time that they are inferior to a mountain, to which alone the imagination can successfully compare them, a degree of surprise is excited on finding the first impression produced by a distant view so much diminished in drawing near to them. On attempting, however, to measure any one of these gigantic works of art by some known and determinate scale, it resumes its immensity to the mind; since, on drawing near to the opening, the persons who stand beneath it appear so small that they can scarcely be taken for men.

The base of the great pyramid of Cheops, or Cheospes, so named after a king of Egypt, is estimated by Denon at seven hundred and twenty feet, and its height at four hundred and forty-eight feet, calculating the base by the mean proportion of the length of the stones, and the height by the sum of that of each of the steps or stages. Its con