En los anales del saber, supieron
Tras largos años de velar continuo
Lo que estos pobres niños, candorosos,
De los tremulos labios del anciano,
Al pié del leño rústico aprendieron.”
—From his ode Los Colonos. [↑]
[14] Known in the West Indies as the god-tree and greatly venerated by the native negroes. The ceiba is one of the few tropical trees that ever shed their foliage. The erythrina, when it exchanges its leaves for flowers, is another. [↑]
[15] G. Hartwig, The Tropical World, p. 137, London, 1892. [↑]
[16] 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. [↑]