spires us with an interest, which relates not solely to the 
physical knowledge of things, but seems to be allied to an- 
other order of ideas and feelings. We can hardly suppose 
that the human race could exist, extensively, without some 
farinaceous substances, any more than the protracted weak- 
ness of the human nurseling can be supported without the 
nutritive fluid of its mother’s breast ; and to this conviction 
is attributable the religious kind of reverence with which 
the amylaceous matter of the Cerealia has been regarded by 
people, both in ancient and modern times, as also the feel- 
ings with which we gazed upon the stately tree that I have 
now described. Neither the noble shadowy forests, nor the 
majestic current of rivers, nor the mountains hoary with 
sempiternal snows,—none of these wonders of tropical 
regions, so rivetted my gaze as did this tree, growing on 
the sides of rocks, its thick roots scarcely penetrating the 
stony soil and unmoistened during many months of the 
year by a drop of dew or rain. But dry and dead as the 
branches appear, if you pierce the trunk, a sweet and 
nutritive milk flows forth, which is in greatest profusion at 
day-break. At this time, the blacks and other natives of 
the neighbourhood hasten from all quarters, furnished with 
large jugs to catch the milk, which. thickens and turns 
yellow on the surface. Some drink it on the spot, others 
carry it home to their children: and you might fancy you 
saw the family of a cow-herd gathering around him and 
receiving from him the produce of his “ kine.” 
Incited by this interesting narrative, by the chemical 
analysis published by Messrs. Rivero and Boussineavutt, 
and by the fact that M. de Humpotpr’s own specimens were 
very incomplete, I have spared no pains to collect materials 
for a more correct history; but hitherto not with that 
success I had anticipated. My original specimens were dried 
ones from Mr. Locxuartr, who had imported the plant 
from the Spanish Main to Trinidad, and my first con- 
signment of Tree milk was from his Excellency Sir Raueu 
(OODFORDE, Governor of that beautiful island. Some of 
the latter was submitted to our distinguished Professor of 
Chemistry, Dr. Tuomson, who discovered in it a new sub- 
stance he calls galactine, which he has arranged among the 
solid oils in his recent elaborate work on Vegetable Che- 
mistry. “The milk” he says, “is white and opaque and of 
the consistence of cream. It had a sour smell, and reddened 
vegetable blues; its specific gravity was 1-01242. It 
contained a small quantity of acetic acid, to which it owed 
sr é its 
