212 



waters of the Rio Estevan by a trench to the 

 town. This work has cost more than thirty 

 thousand piastres ; but it's waters gush out in 

 every street. 



We returned from Porto-Cabello to the val- 

 leys of Aragua, and again stopped at the plan- 

 tation of Barbula, by which the new road to 

 Valencia is traced. We had heard several 

 weeks before of a tree, the juice of which is a 

 nourishing milk. It is called the cow-tree ; and 

 we were assured, that the Negroes of the farm, 

 who drink plentifully of this vegetable milk, 

 consider it as a wholesome aliment. All the 

 milky juices of plants being acrid, bitter, and 

 more or less poisonous, this assertion appeared 

 to us very extraordinary ; but we found by 

 experience during our stay at Barbula, that the 

 virtues of the palo de vaca had not been exag- 

 gerated. This fine tree rises like the broad- 

 leaved star-apple *. It's oblong and pointed 

 leaves, tough and alternate, are marked by 

 lateral ribs, prominent at the lower surface, and 

 parallel. They are some of them ten inches 

 long. We did not see the flower : the fruit is 

 somewhat fleshy, and contains one or sometimes 

 two nuts. When incisions are made in the 

 trunk of the cow-tree, it yields abundance of a 



* Chrysopliyllum cainito. See Annaks du Musk, vol* ii> 

 p, 180. 



