Here is the story from Chapter XII for those who do not have the book:
A Croton Folk Tale
REMINESCIENT OF AESOP'S FABLES is a charming Malayan folk tale which deals with the origin of the croton. Since the croton is grown everywhere in Malaya, this story originated as a part of the native literature of that country. It is reported in the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume IV, Part 1, July 1926, p. 139-140.
"HOW THE CROTON CAME TO MALAYA"
"Jainab, a foreign king's secondary wife, being jealous of Zulaikha, the principal wife, pushed her into a river, intending to drown her. Zulaikha, however, turned into a fish.
When Jainab found Jariah, Zulaikha's daughter, talking to the fish, she caught and ate it. Jariah managed to get one of the bones.
Next day she planted it, ad very soon a lime tree sprang from it. This she tended, watering its roots in dry weather; and the tree spoke to her even as the fish had done.
When Jainab found that Jariah's mother existed in the form of the tree, she cut it down and burned it, but not before Jariah had managed to obtain one of the seeds of its lime-fruit.
Some time afterwards Jariah ran away and planted the seed in the heart of the virgin jungle. A plant quickly grew from it : not a lime tree but a croton.
Jariah had no difficulty in finding food, and her clothing neither wore out nor tore because the spirit of her mother was watching over her.
One day a Malay Raja, Abdul Shah, while hunting in the forest discovered Jariah. She told him how she came to be there and pointing to the ( by now full-grown ) tree said, 'This is my mother; now in the form of a tree'.
Raja Abdul Shah fell deeply in love with Jariah, and took her away with him, back to Malaya. The croton also he took and planted in his own garden.
All those who saw the tree were greatly astonished at its beauty and asked why its leaves were so variegated.
Jariah told Abdul Shah that it had no name, since it was the only one of its kind, and was in reality her mother. The gold in the leaves, said she, came from her mother's skin, which was fair and beautiful. The red represented her blood, and the green colour of the deep water of the river into which Jainab had pushed Zulaikha.
In this way Jariah gave suitable explanations for all the colours and patterns of the croton leaves.
Then Raja Abdul Shah called his magician and ordered him to restore Zulaikha to life. The magician told Abdul Shah to cut off a branch of the croton and to immerse it in a concoction that he gave him.
When Raja Abdul Shah did this, the vessel containing the concoction burst into fragments and Zulaikha stood before him to the great joy of Jariah and all present,
Some time afterwards, Jariah and Abdul Shah were married. Jariah's father gave Jainab to her as her slave after cutting off one of her arms, a foot, an ear and a nostril, and blinding her in one eye.
The croton continued to flourish and its seedlings were abundant and to the present day is known as the 'pokok puding'."
