PITTIER—PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 103 
This remarkable tree was first brought to the attention of botanists by 
Humboldt, who describes it in the following manner: 
For many weeks, we have heard a great deal of a tree whose juice is a 
nourishing milk. The tree itself is called the Cow Tree, and we were assured 
that the negroes on the farm, who are in the habit of drinking large quantities 
of this vegetable milk, consider it as highly nutritive; an assertion which 
startled us the more, as almost all lactescent vegetable fluids are acrid, bitter, 
and more or less poisonous. Experience, however, proved to us during our 
residence at Barbula, that the virtues of the Cow Tree, or Palo de Vaca, have 
not been exaggerated. This fine tree bears the general aspect of the Star- 
4pple Tree (Chrysophyllum, cainito) ; its oblong, pointed, coriaceous, and alter- 
nate leaves are about ten inches long, and marked with lateral nerves, which 
are parallel, and project beneath. The flower we had no opportunity of seeing; 
the fruit is somewhat fleshy, and contains one or two kernels. Incisions, made 
in the trunk of the tree, are followed by a profuse flow of gluey and thickish 
milk, destitute of acridity, and exhaling a very agreeable balsamic odour. It 
was offered to us in calabashes, and though we drank large quantities of it, 
both at night before going to bed and again early in the morning, we exper- 
ienced no uncomfortable effects. The viscidity of this milk alone renders it 
rather unpleasant to those who are unaccustomed to it. The negroes and free 
people who work in the plantations use it, by soaking in it bread made from 
Maize, Manioc, Aropa, and Cassava; and the superintendent of the farm as- 
sured us that the slaves become visibly fatter during the season when the 
Palo de Vaca yields most milk. When exposed to the air, this fluid displays 
on its surface, probably by the absorption of the atmospheric oxygen, mem- 
branes of a highly animal nature, yellowish and thready, like those of cheese; 
which, when separated from the more watery liquid, are nearly as elastic as 
those of caoutchouc, but in process of time exhibit the same tendency to putre- 
faction as gelatine. The people give the name of cheese to the curd which 
thus separates when brought into contact with the air, and say that a space 
of five or six days suffices to turn it sour, as I found to be the case in some 
small quantities that I brought to Valencia. The milk itself, kept in a corked 
bottle, had deposited a small portion of coagulum, and far from becoming fetid, 
continued to exhale balsamic scent. When mingled with cold water, the fresh 
fluid coagulated with difficulty; but contact with nitric acid produced the 
Separation of the viscous membranes.! 
Aumboldt and Bonpland were inclined to think that this tree was peculiar 
to the coast cordillera of Venezuela, whereas subsequent information shows that 
its urea is a very extensive one. With reference to Central America, I observed 
it in 1891 on the hills bordering the San Juan River on the Costa Rican side. 
On January 22, 1898, I camped on the ridge dividing the Savegre and Guavo 
rivers in Costa Rica, at the foot of a gigantic tree called “mastate” by my 
Brunka guides. When incised the bark yielded an abundant milk, of which 
I drank a whole cup without suffering any inconvenience. The bark was 
formerly used as a clothing material by the Indians. At the time when this 
tree so came under my notice botany was only of secondary interest to me, and 
I did not try to collect specimens or to identify the species, but there are strong 
reasons for believing that it was the “palo de vaca” of Humboldt, the area 
of which is thus extended west and northward to the border of Nicaragua. 
Around Puerto Obaldia it is a common element of the forest, called “ palo de 
leche” by the natives, but it was not found in the course of my exploration in 
any other part of the Republic of Panama. 
DOUBTFUL AND DISCARDED SPECIES OF BROSIMUM, 
Brosimum echinocarpum Poepp, & Endl. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 2: 34. pl. 148. 1838, 
with the “female involucre muricate, the stigma 4-fid and feathery, and the 
* Voy. Equin. Nouv. Cont. 2: 106 ff, 1819. 
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