COCOA-PALM. 55 



Hhus toxicodendron^ so well known with us ; it is the 

 banc of these lowlands of the coast. In such abundance 

 does it grow that it is almost impossible to avoid com- 

 ing in contact with it, and suffering thereby the usual 

 penalty. We here discovered also another of our north- 

 ern shrubs, Samhucus Canadensis, or common elder. 

 This last we found upon the high table-lands and also far 

 in the interior of the country. These were the only famil- 

 iar indigenous plants that we met with in our rambles in 

 South America ; so different is equatorial vegetation from 

 our northern. 



One of the marked features of this hot coast is the 

 groves of cocoa-nut j^alms which here find a genial home. 

 Xot often does Nature produce a tree that is so variously 

 useful to man. The leaves are employed for thatching, 

 their fibres for manufacturing many articles, while their 

 ashes produce potash in abundance. The fruit is eaten 

 raw, and in many ways prepared for food ; the nut yields 

 an oil which is an important article of commerce; the 

 hard, woody shell answers for cups ; the milk of the fruit 

 is a cooling beverage ; the saccharine juice of the tree 

 also affords an excellent drink, either before or after fer- 

 mentation ; while from the young stems is obtained a fari- 

 naceous substance similar to that of the sago, or bread- 

 palm.* In the cocoa-nut palm, and the same can be said 

 of palm-trees generally, Nature admirably unites the use- 

 ful and ornamental. There is no other tree which contrib- 

 utes so largely to supply the wants of the inliabitants of 



* The bread-palm must uot be confounded with the bread-fruit tree 

 ( Carolinea princeps), which is not indigenous to Venezuela, although com- 

 mon in the country. The last is a majestic exogenous tree with im 

 mense, shining leaves two and a half feet in length and two in breadth. 

 The fruit is as large as a cocoa-nut, and contains many chestnut-like 

 seeds, which, cooked, have a taste somewhat resembling that of the po- 

 tato. 



