May 31, 2026
COW-TREE
The ancient inhabitants of Venezuela regarded as sacred the Chichiuhalquehuill, Tree of Milk, or Celestial Tree, that distilled milk from the extremity of its branches, and around which were seated infants who had expired a few days after their birth. A Mexican drawing of this Celestial Tree is preserved in the Vatican, and is noticed by Humboldt, who first heard of the Palo de Vaca, or Cow-tree, in the year 1800, and supposed it to be peculiar to the Cordillera of the coast. It was also found by Mr. Bridemeyer, a botanist, at a distance of three days’ journey to the east of Caraccas, in the valley of Caucagua, where it is known by the name of Arbol de Leche, or the Milk-tree; and where the inhabitants profess to recognise, 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. At Barbula, this vegetable fountain is more aptly termed the Palo de Vaca, or Cow-tree. It rises, as Humboldt informs us, like the broad-leaved Star-apple (Chrysophyllum Cainito), to a height of from thirty to forty feet, and is furnished with round branches, which, while young, are angular, and clothed with a fine heavy down. The trunk, on being wounded, yields its agreeable and nutritious fluid in the greatest profusion. Humboldt remarks that “a few drops of vegetable juice recall to our minds all the powerfulness and the fecundity of nature. On the barren flank of a rock grows a tree with coriaceous and dry leaves. Its large woody roots can scarcely penetrate into the stone. For several months of the year, not a single shower moistens its foliage. Its 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 fountain is most abundant. The blacks and natives are then seen hastening from all quarters, furnished with large bowls to receive the milk, which grows yellow, and thickens at its 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.”