THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 109 



with every breath of air. That the aspen is durable when pro- 

 tected, is hinted at in the couplet applied to the species which 



runs : 



"Though heart of oak be ne'er so stout, 

 Keep me dry and I'll see him out." 



TREES THAT YIELD BUTTER. 



BUTTER, as the term (from a Greek word meaning "ox- 

 cheese") implies, was originally a name for a product 

 obtained from the milk of the cow, and afterward, by exten- 

 sion, for a like substance obtained from the milk of other ani- 

 mals such as the ewe and the goat. By a further extension, 

 the name has been applied to certain fixed vegetable oils, the 

 melting point, consistency and aspect of which resemble butter 

 of animal origin, such as "butter of cocoa," a concrete oil of 

 a sweet and agreeable taste obtained from the kernels of the 

 fruit of Theobroma cacao or "chocolatenut tree;" "butter of 

 Bambuk," an oil obtained from a species of almond in Senegal, 

 and used medicinally ; and "butter of nutmegs" or "butter of 

 mace," a sebaceous substance expressed in the East Indies from 

 the arillus of the fruit of Myristica moschata. 



To the plants yielding such oils has been applied the name 

 of "butter-trees," and to the oils themselves the term "vege- 

 table butter." The "butter-tree" of Nepal is the Basia butyra- 

 cea, the seeds of which yield by pressure fi semi-solid oil, which 

 thickens and becomes of the consistency of lard. It is called 

 "phoolma," "choree," or "vegetable butter," and is used for 

 culinary purposes, and, by the natives of rank, for anointing 

 the body. The seed of Bassia latifolia, the "mahwa-tree" of 

 Bengal, yield a greenish-white oil which is of the consistency of 

 butter, and which is used as such by the poorer classes. From 

 the flowers of the tree is distilled a spirit resembling whisky, 

 which the natives like better, and consume in large quantities. 

 Another species of the same genus, B. longifolia, the illupie- 

 tree, affords an oil similar to that obtained from the two pre- 



