We must not quit these regions without mentioning two beneficent trees--the _Theobroma Cacao_ and the cow-tree, _Brosimum Galactodendron_. The roasted and crushed seeds of _Theobroma Cacao_, with the addition of sugar, make chocolate. Humboldt gives the following account of the cow-tree, which has the habit of _Chrysophyllum Cainito_: “The fruit is rather fleshy, consisting of one, sometimes two nuts. When incisions are made in the trunk an abundance of thick glutinous milk flows, which is without any acidity. This substance exhales a very agreeable balsam-like odor. It was presented to us in the fruit of the Calabash-tree. We drank considerable quantities of it in the evening before going to bed, and again early in the morning, without experiencing any injurious effects. Negroes and free people who work on the plantations drink of it, and soak their maize or manioc bread in it. The master of the farm assured us that the slaves fattened visibly during the season when the _Palo de Vacca_ furnishes them with most milk. Upon the arid flank of a rock,” adds Von Humboldt, “there grows a tree whose leaves are dry and coriaceous, its great ligneous roots almost piercing the stone. During many months of the year not a shower waters its foliage, the branches appear dry and dead; but when the trunk is pierced a sweet and nourishing milk follows the incision.” In order to penetrate to the heart of the vegetation of Brazil, the region of palms and _Melastomaceæ_, the land of promise to the naturalists, we shall take as our guide Martius and August de Sainte-Hilaire, who have written with much exactness on the vegetable wonders displayed in the Brazilian forests. Their aspect varies according to the nature of the soil, and the distribution of water traversing them. If these forests are not the seat of a constant supply of moisture, or if the moisture is only renewed by periodical rains, the drought stops the vegetation, and it becomes intermittent, as in European climates. This is the case in the Catingas. The vegetation of the untrodden forests, on the contrary, of which Sainte-Hilaire gives an eloquent picture, is the reverse of this; excited by the ceaseless action of the two agents, humidity and heat, the vegetation of the virgin forests remains in a state of continual activity. The winter is only distinguished from the summer by a shade of color in the verdure of the foliage; and if some of the trees lose their leaves, it is to assume immediately a new appearance. “When a European arrives in America, and sees from a distance the untrodden forests for the first time, he is astonished not to see the singular forms which he admired in European hothouses, but which are here mingled in masses and lost. And he is astonished at the little difference in the outline of the forests between those of his own country and those of the New World, and he is only struck with the proportions and the deep green color of the leaves, which,