426 



COW-TREE CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE. 



popa, and sarnie, exist in the vast forests of Choco 

 and Popayan. In the valley of Caucagua, it is 

 known by the name of arbol de leche, or the milk- 

 tree ; and there the inhabitants, as Huinholdt ac- 

 quaints us, " profess to recognize, from the thick- 

 ness and colour of the foliage, the trunks that yield 

 the most juice, as the herdsman distinguishes, 

 from external signs, a good milch cow." At the 

 farm of Barbula, this vegetable fountain is more 

 aptly termed the palo de vaca, or cow-tree. It 

 rises, as Humboldt informs us, like the broad-leaved 

 star-apple (chrysophyllum cainito), to a height of 

 from thirty to forty feet, and is furnished with 

 round branches, which, while young, are angular, 

 and clothed with a fine heavy down. The leaves 

 are alternate, peiiolate, oblong, rounded at either 

 extremity, and terminated with a very short point, 

 or acumen, very entire at their edges, their veins 

 reticulated, and the primary ones projecting on the 

 surface; they are tough or leathery, very smooth, 

 nine or ten inches in length, and hardly four in 

 breadth : the petioles, or footstalks of the leaves, 

 are thick, furrowed, smooth, eight or nine inches 

 long, and unfurnished with stipules at their base. 

 The flowers, unfortunately, have never yet been 

 seen by any botanist, and hence nothing is known 

 with certainty as to the genus to which it belongs : 

 the fruit resembles the drupe of a walnut, is fleshy, 

 globular, and green, containing one or two one- 

 seeded nuts. The trunk, on being wounded, yields 

 its bland, agreeable, and nutritious fluid in the 

 greatest profusion, especially at the rising of the 

 sun. " It is not here," says Humboldt, " the 

 solemn shades of forests, the majestic course of 

 rivers, the mountains wrapped in eternal frost, 

 that excite our emotion. A few drops of vegetable 

 juice recall to our minds all the powerfulness and 

 the fecundity of nature. On the barren flank of a 

 rock grows a tree with coriaceous and dry leaves. 

 Its large woody roots can scarely penetrate into the 

 stone. For several months of the year, not a single 

 shower moistens its foliage. Its branches appear 

 dead and dried ; but when the trunk is pierced, 

 there flows from it a sweet and nourishing milk. 

 It is at the rising of the sun that this vegetable 

 fountain is most abundant. The blacks and natives 

 are then seen hastening from all quarters, furnished 

 with large bowls to receive the milk, which grows 

 yellow, and thickens at its surface. Some employ 

 their bowls under the tree itself, others carry the 

 juice home to their children. We drank consi- 

 derable 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 ropi- 

 ness of this milk alone renders it a little dis- 

 agreeable. The negroes and the free people, who 

 work in the plantations, drink it, dipping into 

 it their bread of maize or cassava. The major domo 

 of the farm told us, that the negroes grow sensibly 

 fatter during the season when the palo de vaca 

 furnishes them with most milk." 



This juice, exposed to the air, presents at its 

 surface, perhaps in consequence of the absorption 

 of the atmospheric oxygen, membranes of a strongly 

 animalized substance, yellowish, stringy, and re- 

 sembling a cheesy substance ; these membranes, 

 separated from the rest of the more aqueous liquid, 

 are elastic, almost like caoutchouc; but they un- 

 dergo, in time, the same phenomena of putrefaction 

 as gelatine. The people call the coagulum that 

 separates by the contact of the air, cheese ; this 

 coagulum grows sour in the space of five or six days. 



CRAIGMILLAR CASTLE; a castle situated 

 about three miles south of Ediiibuigh, the ruins of 

 which still remain. It stands on elevated ground, 

 and commands an extensive and beautiful prospect 

 on every side. Its ape is not known ; but tha 

 rampart, as appears by the inscription upon the gate, 

 was built in 1427. 



The front of the building is towards the north : 

 over one of the doors is carved a press and a cask, 

 in allusion, it is believed, to the name of Preston. 

 It was surrounded by a thick rampart, thirty feet 

 high, with parapets and turrets, of which a consi- 

 derable part remains. There is an inner court of 

 considerable extent ; and there is also a very large 

 outer court ; on the west side of which then 

 erected a presbyterian meeting-houfce, in conse- 

 quence of the indulgence granted to that persuasion 

 by James VII. of Scotland. 



This castle was for some time the residence of 

 James V., when he left Edinburgh on account of 

 the plague. It was taken, and part of it demol- 

 ished, by the English, in 1543, when Henry VIII. 

 invaded Scotland, in order to compel the young 

 queen of Scots to marry his son prince Edward. 

 Mary queen of Scots resided here for some time 

 after her return from France, in 1561. Her French 

 servants took up their abode in a neighbouring vil- 

 lage, which is yet known by the name of Little 

 France ; and a room in the castle is still called queen 

 Mary's drawing-room. 



The castle and surrounding estate belonged, so 

 far back as the year 1374, to the family of Preston. 

 They now belong to the descendants of Sir Thomas 

 Gilmour, the great Scottish lawyer, who acquired 

 the property about the time of the Revolution. 



CREOSOTE; a remarkable substance, disco- 

 vered about 1831, by Reichenbach, in the oil of 

 tar. It is obtained by a tedious process, princi- 

 pally consisting in repeated solution in potash, se- 

 paration by acid, and distillation. It is an oily 

 fluid, sp. gr. 1-037; colourless, refracting light 

 powerfully, having a sweetish burning taste, and a 

 strong smell of peat smoke, or smoked meat. It 

 has many useful properties. 1. Flesh steeped in a 

 solution of it, one part to a hundred of water, for 

 twenty-four or forty-eight hours, is rendered im- 

 putrescible, and acquires a pleasant smoked flavour. 

 This explains the use of smoke, tar, and pyrolig- 

 neous acid as antiseptics ; for all these bodies owe 

 their virtue to the creosote they contain. As the 

 Egyptians are known to have used the oil of tar 

 in embalming, Reichenbach concludes, with much 

 probability, that creosote is the essential mummi- 

 fying substance ; and that the fragrant gums were 

 only used to disguise the smell. From this power- 

 ful antiseptic property is derived the name, which 

 signifies "preserver of flesh." Creosote is now 

 beginning to be employed as the best means of 

 smoking flesh and fish. 2. Creosote has been used 

 in surgery and medicine with great success. It is 

 an excellent application to ulcers, even the most 

 malignant, to most cutaneous eruptions, and to 

 burns and wounds. It should be applied in sub- 

 stance at first, till a healthy action is produced, 

 after which it may be used diluted. It produces 

 intense but very short-lived smarting. It also acts 

 as a very energetic and safe styptic. Internally, it 

 has been found of use in stomachic disorders, espe- 

 cially in obstinate vomiting. The dose should be 

 carefully regulated ; one to two drops in a cup of 

 water being an averge dose. A larger quantity 

 might produce poisonous effects. To the cutane- 



