The Cow Tree.

This tree is a native of Venezuela, South America.

It grows in rocky situations, high up in the mountains.

Baron Von Humboldt gives the following description of it:

On the barren flank of a rock grows a tree with dry and leathery leaves; its large woody roots can scarcely penetrate into the stony soil.

For several months in the year not a single shower moists its foliage.

Its branches appear dead and dried; yet as soon as the trunk is pierced, there flows from it a sweet and nourishing milk.

It is at sunrise that this vegetable fountain is most abundant.

The natives are then to be seen hastening from all quarters, furnished with large bowls to receive the milk, which grows yellow, and thickens on the surface.

Some drain their bowls under the tree, while others carry home the juice to their children; and you might fancy, as the father returned homeward with his milk, you saw the family of a shepherd gathering round and receiving from him the production of his knife.

The milk obtained by incision made in the trunk is tolerably thick, free from all acridity, and of an agreeable and balmy smell.

It was offered to us in the shell of the calabash tree.

We drank a considerable quantity of it in the evening before going to bed, and very early in the morning, without experiencing the slightest injurious effect.