August, 1S44.] 79 



exaggerated, as he had subsequently ample opportunities of judging 

 from trials made of it himself. He says: "It was a gluey and 

 thickish milk, destitute of acridity and exhaling a very agreeable 

 balsamic odour. It was offered to us in calabashes, and though 

 we drank large quantities of it, both at night before going to bed, 

 and again early in the morning, we experienced no uncomfortable 

 effects." The viscidity of this milk was the chie'f objection to it. The 

 natives and slaves used it freely, and became visibly fatter during 

 the season when the Palo de Vaca yields most milk. 



Other naturalists and travellers have since confirmed these state- 

 ments of Humboldt. He also says : " none of the wonders of these tro- 

 pical regions so rivetted my gaze as did this tree, growing on the sides 

 of rocks, its thick roots scarcely penetrating the stony soil, and un- 

 moistened for many months in 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 vicinity 

 hasten from all quarters, furnished with large vessels to catch the 

 milk, winch 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."* 



Sir Robert Ker Porter, British consul at Laguayra, at the request 



Sir Wm. Hooker, visited in the month of May, 1837, the region 

 where the Palo de Vaca is found. Accompanied by some of th© na- 

 tives, with great difficulty and fatigue, and through a dense and un- 

 travelled forest, and at an elevation which he supposed to be 4000 

 feet above the level of the sea, he reached a group of these trees, 

 and at once made an incision into one of them, ' from which flowed 

 the milk, white and limpid as that of the cow, sweet to the palate 

 and accompanied by an aromatic smell, but leaving a clamminess 

 upon the lips, and upon the tongue a slight bitter.' He was enabled 

 in a short time to obtain a considerable quantity, although less than 

 was usual, as his visit was made during the decrease of the moon, 

 when this fluid is said not to be so abundant as during its increase. 



The trunks of the trees seen by him measured in some instances 

 20 feet in circumference, and had attained an altitude of at least aft 



* Curtis' Botan. Mag. Vol. 13, new series. 

 10 



