|j("; C(nv-TriEE. 



CHAP. XIV. returned to tlie valleys of Aragua, and again stopped at 

 — ^ the fann of Barbula. Having heard of a tree the juice 

 of wliich resembles milk and is used as an article of 

 food, tliey visited it, and to their surprise found that the 

 statements which had been made to them with respect 

 to it were correct. It is named the palo de vaca or cow- 

 tree, and has oblong pointed leaves, with a somewliat 

 fleshv fruit containing one or sometimes two nuts. 

 When an incision is made in the trunk, there issues 

 abundantly a tliiek glutinous milky fluid, perfectly free 

 from acrimony, and having an agreeable smell. It is 



Juice. drunk by the negroes and free people who work in the 



plantations, and the travellers took a considerable quan- 

 tity of it without the least injurious effect. When 

 exposed to the air, this juice presents on its surface a 

 yellowish cheesy substance, in membranous layers, 

 which are elastic, and in live or six days become sour, 

 and afterwards putrefy. 



The cow-tree appears to be peculiar to the littoral 

 Cordillera, and occurs most plentifully between Barbula 

 and tlie Lake of Maracaybo. 



obsen-atinns " ■'^"^ong the many curious phenomena," says Hum- 



ol Humboldt boldt, " which presented themselves to me in the course 

 of my travels, I confess there were few by which my 

 imagination was so powerfully affected as the cow-tree. 

 All that relates to milk and to the cereal plants inspires 

 us with an interest, which is not merely that of the 

 physical knowledge of things, but which connects itself 

 with another order of ideas and feelings. We can hardly 

 imagine how the human species could exist without fari- 

 naceous substances, and without the nutritious fluid 

 which the breast of the mother contains, and which is 

 ajipropriated to the condition of the feeble infant. The 

 amylaceous matter of the cereal plants — the object of 

 religious veneration among so many ancient and modern 

 nations — is distril)uted in the seeds, and deposited in 

 the roots of vegetables ; while the milk which we use as ■ 

 food appears exclusively the product of animal organi- 

 zation. Such are the impressions which we receive in 



