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veral months of the year not a single shower 

 moistens its foliage. It's 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 foun- 

 tain is most abundant. The Blacks and natives 

 are then seen hastening from ail quarters, fur- 

 nished with large bowls to receive the milk, 

 which grows yellow, and thickens at it's 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. 



I have described the sensations, which the cow- 

 tree awakens in the mind of the traveller at the 

 first view. In examining the physical properties 

 of animal and vegetable products, science dis« 

 plays them as closely linked together ; but it 

 strips them of what is marvellous, and perhaps 

 also of a part of their charms, of what excited 

 our astonishment. Nothing appears isolated ; 

 the chemical principles, that were believed to be 

 peculiar to animals, are found in plants ; a com- 

 mon chain links together all organic nature. 



Long before chemists had recognized small 

 portions of wax in the pollen of flowers, the var- 

 nish of leaves, and the whitish dust of our plums 

 and grapes, the inhabitants of the Andes of 

 Quindiu fabricated tapers with the thick layer 



