215 



of fructification. It seems, according to Mr. 

 Kunth, to belong to the sapota family % Long 

 after my return to Europe/ 1 found in the De- 

 scription of the East Indies by Laet, a Dutch- 

 man , a passage, that seems to have some rela- 

 tion to the cow-tree. " There exist trees/' says 

 Laet fy " in the province of Cumana, the sap of 

 which resembles curdled milk, and affords a 

 s salubrious nourishment" 



Amid the great number of curious pheno- 

 mena, which have presented themselves to me 



< * Galactodendrum, ex familia sapotearum. Arbor 6-7 — 

 orgyalis. Ramuli teretes ; glabri, juniores angulati, tenu- 

 issime canescenti-puberuli. Gcrnmce terminales, subulatae, 

 convolutas, sericeo-pubescentes. Folia alterna, petiolata, 

 oblonga, utrinque rotundata, apice brevissime acuminata, 

 integerrima, reticulato-venosa, venis primariis transversali- 

 bus paulo approximatis subparallelis nervoque subtus promi- 

 nentibus, subcoriacea, glaberrima, exsiccata supra viridia, 

 subtus aureo-fusca, novem aut decern pollices longa, vix 

 quatuor pollices lata. Petioli crassi, canaliculati, glabri, 8 

 aut 9 lineas longi. Stipules nullaa. Fructus facie drupae 

 juglandis, carnosus, globosus, yiridis, foetus nucibns 1 aut 

 2, monospermis (Drupa? pluri — , arbotu uni-aut bilocularis : 

 loculis monospermis ?) Kunth in Humb. et Bo?ipL, Nov. Gen., 

 Tom. iii, ined. 



t Inter arbores quae sponte bic passim nascuntur, mcmo- 

 rantur a scriptoribus bispanis quaedam que lacteum que in dam 

 Jiquorem fundunt, qui durus admodum evadit instar gummi 

 et suavem odorem de se fundit ; aliae quae liquor em quemdam 

 edunt, instar lactis coagulati, qui in cibis ab ipsis usurpatur sine 

 De-script, hid. occ, Lid, 18, Cap. 4 (ecL 1633, p. 



■672). 



