morning, we experienced no uncomfortable effects. The 
viscidity of this milk alone renders it rather unpleasant to 
those who are unaccustomed to it. The negroes and free 
people who work in the plantations, use it, by soaking 
bread in it made from Maize, Manioc, Aropa, and Cassava ; 
and the superintendent of the farm assured us, that the 
slaves become visibly fatter during the season when the 
Palo de Vaca yields most milk. When exposed to the air, 
this fluid displays on its surface, probably by the absorption 
of the atmospheric oxygen, membranes of a highly animal 
nature, yellowish and thready, like those of cheese ; which, 
when separated from the more watery liquid, are nearly as 
elastic as those of caoutchouc, but in process of time ex- 
hibit the same tendency to putrefaction as gelatine. The 
people give the name of cheese to the curd which thus sepa- 
rates when brought into contact with the air, and say that 
a space of five or six days suffices to turn it sour, as I found 
to be the case in some small quantities that I brought to 
New Valencia. The milk itself, kept in a corked bottle, had 
deposited a small portion of coagulum, and far from becom- 
ing fetid, continued to exhale a balsamic scent. When 
mingled with cold water, the fresh fluid coagulated with 
difficulty ; but contact with nitric acid produced the separa- 
tion of the viscous membranes. 
«This wonderful tree appears peculiar to the Cordillera 
of the shore, especially from Barbula to the Lake of Mara- 
caybo. Some individual Cow Trees are also said to exist near 
the village of San Mateo, and (according to M. BrEDEMEYER, 
whose expeditions have added so greatly to the treasures 
contained in the noble hothouses of Schénbrunn and Vien- 
na,) likewise in the valley of Caucagua, three days’ journey 
to the East of Caracas. To this naturalist, as to us, the 
vegetable milk of the Palo de Vaca appeared to be highly 
agreeable in flavour, and to possess an aromatic smell. 
At Caucaguea, the natives call the tree which yields this 
nutritive fluid, Milk Tree (Arbol de leche) ; and pretend to 
discriminate, by the thickness and hue of their foliage, 
those trunks which contain most sap, as a cowherd would 
know, by outward signs, the best milch cow in his 
herd. 
«| own that amid the great number of curious pheno- 
mena which offered themselves to my notice during my 
travels, there was hardly one which struck my imagination 
so strongly as the sight of the Cow Tree. Every thing 
which relates to milk—all which regards the Cerealia, in- 
‘ spires 
