WONDERS OF THE FOREST. 



571 



milk, and wax as pure as that obtained from bees. By dip- 

 ping cotton in the liquid, too, candles can be made. 



In the hotter 

 regions grows the 

 bajuco d'agua, which 

 supplies the place of 

 wells and fountains, 

 — each yard of it 

 affording a pint of 

 water. High up 

 on the mountain- 

 side, in the regions of icy wastes, 

 called the paramos, grows the 

 frailejou, which yields a pure tur- 

 pentine, and assists to warm the 

 human body. Of the palms, a 

 few only can be described. There 

 is the cocoa-nut palm, with its 

 swollen bulb-like stem when 

 young, its tall straight trunk 

 when full-grown, its cluster of 

 heavy fruit, its loug plume-like 

 drooping flower; the coccoeiro, 

 with its slighter trunk and pen- 

 dent branches of small berry- 

 like fruit; the palmetto, with its 

 tender succulent bud on the sum- 

 mit of the stem, used as a vege- 

 table, and proving an excellent 

 substitute for cabbage ; the thorny icari, or cari — a variety of 

 fan-palm. Its spiny stems and leaves, which cut like razors, 



TIIK COCOA-NUT PALM. 



