Note 16 — Chapter V · EL RIO META
Reading edition
Op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 47 et seq.
As early as 1640 the Dutch writer Laet refers to a milk tree which was evidently the same as the one that so impressed Humboldt. He says: “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.”—Descriptio Indiarum Occidentalium, Lib. XVIII. ↑