ot quickly initiated.

The fever of colonization has attacked the forest and here and there it
rages; for certain it will not be a long time before that vast extension
of tropical vegetation with the extraordinary fertility of its soil will
give place to plantations of Parah-rubber, gutta-percha, coffee, sugar,
rice, tobacco, etc.

For this reason I shall be very pleased to give what aid I can to the
cause of Science by means of notes, collections and specimens of paints
and animals not yet thoroughly known or studied, should anyone feel
inclined to respond to the offer before it is too late. Such help would
seem to me a sweet chain of thought, linking the mind of the colonist in
the remote depths of the Malay Forest, to the Mother Country and that
civilization from which he has withdrawn himself.

* * * * *

The "_giu u toalang_" is one of the colossal trees of the Jungle for it
reaches from 40 to 46 yards in height. It may be said that its whole
organism is poisonous because its deadly properties have the same force
in the juice under the bark as in the leaves, when they are rubbed or
broken. If this sap finds its way under the skin, in contact with the
flesh or blood-vessels it has a quick and mortal effect. It seems to me
that even the smell might produce fatal consequences but of this I am
not sure, although it is a certain fact that it makes one feel very ill
and the indisposition can only be cured by keeping the patient in a high
temperature.

Almost the same poisonous power has the "_giu u rangas_", a tree of
more modest dimensions, and the "_giu u sagol_" smaller still. It is
dangerous to touch the leaves of these two plants because they bring
about a severe irritation of the skin, covering it with pimples and
little bladders, that itch intolerably, whilst the body becomes
swollen. And yet the temptation to scratch must be resisted or
ulceration follows with the probability of gangrene. When one is able
to renounce the momentary relief procured by rubbing or scratching the
inconvenience passes in a couple of days.

The _toalang_, _rengas_, and _sagol_ are to be found scattered profusely
over the forest but the Sakai does not interest himself in their
venomous properties because he finds that those of which he already
knows the secret fully satisfy his wants in promptness and effect. On
the contrary he wages a continual war against these noxious plants
beating them down and