THE EQUATORIAL FORESTS 51 
is extremely viscid, and can with difficulty be 
removed from the hands or whatever else it 
touches — a property which renders it an excellent 
substitute for glue, but a rather unsafe article of 
diet, and serious cases of constipation have resulted 
from its being partaken of too freely. When dried 
it quite resembles gutta-percha, and I have no 
doubt might be put to the same uses. 
Almost every region of tropical South America 
has its Cow-tree. That of the coast of Venezuela, 
rendered famous by the researches of Humboldt 
and Bonpland, and of Boussingault, is an Artocarp, 
of the genus Brosimum ; but this of Para is a 
Sapotad, with large leaves, white beneath, close 
parallel veins, and edible berries, as most others 
of the tribe have. 1 afterwards fell in with two 
species bearing the same native name, and having 
quite the same habit, on the Casiquiari and Upper 
Rio Negro. Their milk, however, was scarcely 
drinkable, although it possessed the other pro- 
perties of that of Para, and was in universal use 
as glue. A hammock which I purchased there for 
the Museum of the Royal Gardens at Kew has 
the borders ornamented with beautiful devices in 
bird's feathers, all stuck on with the milk of the 
Maceranduba. I gathered flowers and fruit of 
both species, which proved them to be species of 
Mimusops, and therefore congeners of the Bully- 
tree of Tobago, and probably also of the Balata 
of Demerara. 
All the species known to me have a deep, dull 
red, heavy, close-grained wood, much esteemed 
for its durability. I have seen a perfectly straight 
squared log of it, 60 feet long, brought from the 
