Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 75 of 777 - First - Home
At Caucagua, The Natives
Call The Tree That Furnishes This Nourishing Juice, The Milk-Tree
(Arbol Del Leche).
They profess to recognize, 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. It seems,
according to M. Kunth, to belong to the sapota family. Long after my
return to Europe, I found in the Description of the East Indies by
Laet, a Dutch traveller, a passage that seems to have some relation to
the cow-tree. "There exist trees," says Laet,* "in the province of
Cumana, the sap of which much resembles curdled milk, and affords a
salubrious nourishment." (* "Inter arbores quae sponte hic passim
nascuntur, memorantur a scriptoribus Hispanis quaedam quae lacteum
quemdam liquorem fundunt, qui durus admodum evadit instar gummi, et
suavem odorem de se fundit; aliae quae liquorem quemdam edunt, instar
lactis coagulati, qui in cibis ab ipsis usurpatur sine noxa." (Among
the trees growing here, it is remarked by Spanish writers that there
are some which pour out a milky juice which soon grows solid, like
gum, affording a pleasant odour; and also others that give out a
liquid which coagulates like cheese, and which they eat at meals
without any ill effects). Descriptio Indiarum Occidentalium, lib. 18.)
Amidst the great number of curious phenomena which I have observed in
the course of my travels, I confess there are few that have made so
powerful an impression on me as the aspect of the cow-tree.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 75 of 777
Words from 20027 to 20292
of 211397