100 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 



notion that milk is only an animal production, 

 must all the more forcibly strike us at the sight 

 of a milk-yielding tree, whose existence had long- 

 been doubted. " Here/' said Baron Humboldt, 

 " are no beautiful forests, no majestic courses 

 of rivers, no mountains enveloped in per- 

 petual snow, which must powerfully impress 

 us : the few drops of the juice of a plant remind 

 us of the omnipotence and the fertility of 

 nature. On the barren slope of a rock grows 

 a tree, whose leaves are dry and tough, whose 

 roots penetrate with difficulty the stony soil ; 

 for several months during the year no rain 

 refreshes its withering leaves, its branches 

 seem decayed; but if you bore the stem, a 

 mild and nourishing milk flows from it. At 

 sunrise this vegetable source is the richest, 

 and the natives approach from every direction 

 with large basins in order to collect the milk, 

 which soon produces on the surface a kind of 

 cream. Some consume their milk under the 

 tree, others bring it to their children, and we 

 fancy we see the assembled household of a 

 shepherd distributing the milk of his flock." 

 Humboldt relinquished his intended visit to the 

 eastern issues of the Cordillera of New Granada, 

 in order not to delay too long his voyage to the 

 Orinoco. His chief object was now to discover 



