174 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



of bread are sometimes made in the Molucca Islands 

 of the pith of the sago, and that these loaves are 

 baked in small ovens, ( the floors of which are 

 divided by means of partitions into cells about the size 

 of an octavo volume.' 



The leaf of the sago is used in the same quarter 

 for covering houses, and in that climate will not 

 need to be renewed oftener than once in seven 

 years. 



When the sago tree is cut down, its vegetative 

 power still remains in the root, which again puts forth 

 its leaves and forms the trunk, and this proceeds again 

 through its different stages until it is again subjected 

 to the axe, and made to yield its alimentary contents 

 for the service of man. 



Sago is also produced from many varieties of 

 palms, but the tree here described is that which fur- 

 nishes the best. The produce of the Cycas circinalis, 

 so often erroneously mentioned as yielding the sago 

 of commerce, is very inferior. 



If the native of the Molucca Islands has his sago- 

 bread without the labour of cultivating the plant 

 which produces it, the Indian of the Cordilleras of 

 South America has his supply of milk from a tree, 

 growing at a vast height amidst arid mountains, 

 where no cattle can pasture. The Cow-Tree has 

 been described by Humboldt with his characteristic 

 spirit and accuracy ; and it was much earlier noticed 

 by Laet, a Dutch traveller, as growing in the pro- 

 vince of Cumana. * On the side of a thirsty rock,' 

 says Humboldt, ' grows a tree whose leaves are dry 

 and husky. Its large roots penetrate with difficulty 

 through the stony soil. During many months of 

 the year not a shower waters its foliage ; the branches 

 appear withered and dead ; but when its trunk is 

 pierced, a sweet and nourishing milk flows from the 

 wound. It is at the rising of the sun that this ve- 



