Art. IV.— the COW TREE OF SOUTH AMERICA. 



In the valley of Aragua, Humboldt first saw the celebrated ' Cow- 

 tree,' the existence of which he had previously doubted, and of 

 which he gives the following beautiful description : 



" When incisions are made in the trunk of this tree, it yields 

 abundance of a glutinous milk, tolerably thick, devoid of all acidity, 

 and of an agreeable and balmy smell. It was offered to us in the 

 shell of a calabash. We drank considerable quantities of it in the 

 evening before we went to bed, and very early in the morning, with- 

 out feeling the least injurious effect. The glutinous character of 

 this milk, alone renders it a little disagreeable. The negroes and 

 the free people, who work on the plantations, drink it, dipping into 

 it their bread of maize or cassava. The overseer of the farm told 

 us that the negroes grow sensibly fatter during the season when the 

 Palo-de-vacce furnishes them with most milk. This juice, exposed 

 to the air, presents at its surface a strongly animalized substance, 

 yellowish, stringy, and resembling cheese'. 



Amidst the great number of curious phenomena, which I have ob- 

 served in the course of my travels, I confess there are few that have 

 made so powerful an impression on me, as the aspect of the cow-tree. 

 Whatever relates to milk or to corn, inspires an interest which is not 

 merely that of the physical knowledge of things, but is connected 

 with another order of ideas and sentiments. We can scarcely con- 

 ceive how the human race could exist without farinaceous substances, 

 and without the nourishing juice which the mother contains, and 

 which is appropriated to . the long feebleness of the infant. The 

 amylaceous matter of corn — the object of religious veneration among 

 so many nations, ancient and modern — is diffused in the seeds, and 

 deposited in the roots of vegetables ; milk, which serves as an ali- 

 ment, appears to us exclusively the produce of animal organization. 

 Such are the impressions we have received in our earliest infancy ; 

 such is also the source of that astonishment, by the aspect of the 

 tree just described. It is not here the solemn shades of forests, the 

 majestic course of rivers, the mountains wrapped in eternal snow, 

 that excite our emotion. A few drops of vegetable juice recall to 

 our minds all the powerfulness and the fecundity of nature. On 



