48 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



seemed to us very extraordinary. Experience has 

 however proved that the virtues of the cow-tree had 

 not been overrated. When incisions are made in 

 the trunk of the tree, it gives forth a glutinous milk, 

 rather thick, free from all acidity, and exhaling a very 

 agreeable odor. We were offered some of it in cala- 

 bashes, and drank considerable draughts of it both that 

 night before retiring to rest, and early in the morning, 

 without experiencing any unpleasant effects. The 

 viscous quality of the milk was the only thing un- 

 pleasant about it. The negroes and free men who 

 work on the plantations drink it, soaking in it corn 

 cakes and cassava. The manager of the farm assured 

 us that the slaves became sensibly fatter during the 

 season when the cow-tree furnishes them the largest 

 supply of milk." 



" Among the numerous interesting phenomena 

 presented to me during my . expedition," continues 

 Humboldt, " few things made a more vivid impres- 

 sion upon my imagination than the appearance of the 

 cow-tree. Every thing that relates to milk or concerns 

 cereals awakens within us an interest which is not 

 merely of a scientific character, but which connects 

 itself with another order of ideas and sentiments. It 

 is hardly possible to conceive of the human race exist- 

 ing without farinaceous substances, or without that 

 nutritious liquid which springs from the mother's 

 breasts, and which is so admirably suited to the infant 

 in the weakness of its early youth. Farinaceous mat- 

 ter is found not only in grain but also in many roots, 

 and even in the trunks of certain trees, as in the sago 



