Domestic Notices: — Scotland. 103 



to besmear straws to catch parrots, by placing them across their nests ; and, 

 by boiling it with the gum of the mangle tree (?), tempered with wood ashes, 

 producing a glue impervious to moisture." 



He then proceeds to state, that they obtained abundance of the milk, which 

 he describes as being aromatic, sweet, of the thickness of good cream, and so 

 white as to stain substances on which it fell pretty durably. He says, that it 

 mixed as readily with spirits as cow's milk, and, either with it or with water, 

 formed an agreeable beverage, of which they drank freely without injury. 

 They cut down one of the trees, which he describes as being the loftiest of 

 the forest, in order to obtain specimens, and found that the timber was white, 

 with a fine grain, proper for boards or shingles. The flowers, which he was 

 informed were very showy, were gone j but the branches were loaded with 

 fruit, of about a month old, growing in clusters from the alse of the leaves: 

 they were scabrous, and about the size of small nutmegs. The leaves he de- 

 scribes as standing on short footstalks, coriaceous, hearted at the base, and 

 marginate, or sometimes pointed at their summit: they were, he says, covered 

 over, to a considerable extent, with large semiglobular glands. He considers 

 this tree as different from Humboldt's Palo de Vaca ; which latter he sup- 

 poses to be the same with that called lyria in the Checo. In a further part of 

 his letter, he speaks of some of the fruit of the popa gathered by himself in 

 the wood of the Esca, adjoining Citara, or Quibdo, which he sent to our com- 

 mon friend Mr. Watts ; and which, although he was uncertain how far they 

 were sufficiently mature to germinate, were sufficient, he observed, to show 

 that it was not a drupe, but a berry. It appears to me not improbable, al- 

 though the observation seems to have escaped even the penetration of 

 Humboldt, that the Chichiulialquehuitl of the Mexicans, spoken of by Hum- 

 boldt in the 2d vol. of his ResearcJies, p. 32., on the authority of the Codex 

 Vaticaniis Anon., No. 3738., is a species of the Palode Vaca. The MS. quoted 

 contains, as he informs us, several curious figures ; and, among the rest, one 

 of the Chichhihalqiiehuitl, tree of milk, or celestial tree, that distills milk from 

 the extremity of its branches, and around which infants are seated who ex- 

 pired a few days after their birth. 



, Besides the popa and the lyria, Mr. Higson speaks of another tree, the 

 milk of which is not so palatable, although yielded in far greater abundance. 

 The milk of this tree, which is called sande, ia thinner than the former, of 

 a bluish cast, like skimmed milk, not so pleasant to the taste, and not em- 

 ployed for food ; but, in every other respect, closely resembling Humboldt's 

 tree, rising, as Mr. Higson says, like a broad-leaved star apple (Chrysophjllum 

 Cainito'), with alternate leaves seated on short petioles, 10 in. or 12 in. long, 

 oblong, ovate, and sharp-pointed, with the veins alternate, and ferruginous un- 

 derneath. The milk of this tree, inspissated in the lees, acquires the colour 

 and consistence of a black gum prized as a medicine, especially for external 

 use in splenitis and pleuritis. Such is the estimation in which it is held, that 

 it sells, even in the vale of the Cauca, for a dollar the pound weight. 



Thus, besides the Palo de Vaca of Humboldt, the locality of which appears 

 to be limited to the Cordillera of the coa,st,we have here (if we can depend upon 

 Mr. Higson's account) three other distinct milk trees, yielding a liquor more 

 or less potable, and applicable to various other uses, belonging, possibly, to 

 the same genus, or forming distinct genera of the same family, together with, 

 perhaps, a fourth to be yet sought for amidst the unexplored parts of Mexico, 

 and thus giving a far wider range to this valuable production than that assigned 

 by Humboldt. — William Hamilton. Oxford Place, Plymouth, June 20. 1834'. 



SCOTLAND. 



The Idea of an Experimental Farm has been thrown out, from time to time, 

 by different individuals, both in France and Britain. A farmer in Scotland 

 has lately sent to the Highland Society " Suggestions " on this subject ; and 

 the following are the very judicious observations of the Directors, who, at the 

 request of the Duke of Gordon, took the paper into consideration : — 



I 2 



