1 02 Domestic Notices : — England. 



ralist found, like us, that the vegetable milk of the Palo de Vaca had an agree- 

 able taste and an aromatic smell. At Caucagua, the natives call the tree 

 that furnishes this nourishing juice, the milk tree (Arbol de Leche). They pro- 

 fess to recognise, from the thickness and colour of the foliage, the trunks that 

 yield the most juice ; as the herdsman distinguishes, from external signs, a good 

 milch cow. No botanist has hitherto known the existence of this plant, of 

 vi'hich it is easy to procure the parts of fructification. It appears, according 

 to M. Kunth, to belong to the Sapota family. Long after my return to Eu- 

 rope I found, in the description of the West Indies by Laet, a Dutchman, a 

 passage that seems to have some relation to the cow tree. " There exists 

 trees," says Laet {Besc. Lid. Occ, lib. 18. c. 4. ed. 1633, p. 672.), " in the 

 province of Cumana, the sap of which resembles curdled milk, and affords a 

 salubrious nourishment." 



It is not here the solemn shades of forests, the majestic course of rivers, the 

 mountains wrapped in eternal frost, that excite our emotion. A few drops 

 of vegetable juice recall to our miuds all the power, fulness, and the fecundity 

 of nature. On the barren flank of a rock grows a tree with coriaceous and 

 dry leaves. Its large woody roots can scarcely penetrate into the stone. For 

 several months of the year not a single shower moistens its foliage. Its 

 branches appear dead and dried ; but, when the trunk is pierced, there flows 

 from it a sweet and nourishing milk. It is at the rising of the sun that this 

 vegetable fountain is most abundant. The blacks and natives are then seen 

 hastening from all quarters, furnished with large bowls to receive the milk, 

 which grows yellow, and thickens at its surface. Some empty their bowls 

 under the tree itself; others carry the juice home to their children. We seem 

 to see the family of a shepherd who distributes the milk of his flock." 



Humboldt speaks of the cow tree as growing on the barren flank of a rock, 

 where it has little soil, and less moisture. Sir Robert, on the contrary, says 

 that it grows to a vast size in the depths of humid forests, where it enjoys a 

 rich and fertile soil. The nature of the locality will account for the difference 

 in the statements. In Kunth's description I have introduced those points 

 in which he seems to differ from my specimen : the point of attachment of the 

 footstalk (which is broken off) is deeply sunk in the body of the first, giving 

 it almost the appearance of being hearted ; the equatorial diameter (if I may 

 use the expression) exceeds the polar, or that measured in the direction of 

 the insertion of the footstalk ; the former measuring 2 in., the latter 1| in. only : 

 hence its shape is more that of an oblate spheroid, or, rather, approaches to 

 reniform. The form of the specimen sent, on the contrary, approaches nearer 

 to a sphere, being nearly |^ of an inch in its polar, and somewhat less than 

 this in its equatorial, diameter ; it has, also, a cicatrix at its base, as though it 

 had been attached to a dissepiment. 



In order to give a connected view of all the information I possess on the 

 subject of this interesting tree, I shall now extract the particulars furnished 

 to me by Mr. Thomas Higson, in a letter, dated Carthagena, May 16. 1824, 

 eleven years ago. 



Mr. Higson states, that this tree abounds in the deep and humid forests of 

 the provinces of Choco and Popayan, on both sides of the line ; but states 

 that he had not been fortunate enough to see the flowers. He then gives 

 some extracts from his Journals of the date of May 7. 1822, from which it 

 appears that, during the intermission of an attack of intermittent fever, he 

 accompanied the Alcaide and two other gentlemen from the town of Quibdo, 

 on an excursion about twelve miles up the river, to examine the cow tree, 

 which is there known by the name of Po^ya ; the milky juice of which is pro- 

 cured by the Indians from incisions made in the trunk, and by the jaguars, or 

 wild tigers, by lacerating the bark with their claws ; and he confirms Hum- 

 boldt's accounts of its nutritive qualities, by remarking on the improved con- 

 dition of both men and brutes during the season in which this milk is had 

 in greatest abundance ; although, he observes, " the better conditioned inhabit- 

 ants, timid of its effects, and having other food, make no other use of it than 



