Hivero and Boussingault on the Milk qf‘ the Coxe-Tree. 99 
^Humholdt^ Voyage aux Regions Equinoxiales du Nouveau 
Continent^ lib, 5. chap. xvL page 263 et 2641. 
If those who possess these precious trees near their habita- 
tion, drink with so much pleasure their beneficent juice, with 
what delight will the traveller, who penetrates in these high 
mountains, appease with it his hunger and thirst ? Thus we have 
seen, on the road from Patito to Puerto* Cabello, all these trees 
full of incisions, made by the travellers, who seek them with 
anxiety. It would be sufficient, it appears to us, that this milk 
could be used as an aliment, to value it, and invite to the culti- 
vation of the trees which furnish it ; but Nature has been pleased 
to make it still more precious and useful ; for, besides contain- 
ing so nutritious a constituent as fibrin, it also contains, in abun- 
dance, an exquisite kind of wax, which may be extracted with 
great facility. 
Before we left Europe, Baron Humboldt recommended ns 
particularly to make the analysis of this juice; and it is the re- 
sult of our experiments we are going to detail. 
The milk we have examined is given by the cow-tree, which, 
according to Mr Kunth, appears to belong to the family of 
Sapotae and is found on the road from Ourmase to the NW. of 
Maracovy, on the northern declivities of the Andes, It appears, 
that this tree is not peculiar to the Andes on this side of Cara- 
cas ; since we have been assured it grows as well in Choco, This 
vegetable milk possesses all the physical properties of the milk 
of animals; only it is a little thicker, and mixes easily with wa- 
ter. When boiled, it does not coagulate, but a thick yellow 
pellicle is formed on the surface. Acids do not form with this 
milk any coagulum, as with that of the cow. Ammonia gives 
• Galactodendrum, cx familia Sapotearum. Arbor 6-7-OrgyaIis. Hamuli te- 
retes, glabri, juniores angulati, tenuissime canescenti-pubbrati. Gemmcs termi- 
nates, subulat 80 , convolutaj, sericeo-pubescentes. Folia alterna, petiolata, oblonga, 
utrinque rotundata, apice brevissime acuminata, integerrima, reticulato-venosa, ve- 
nis primariis transversalibus paulo approximatis subparallelis nervoqUe subtus pro- 
minentibus, subcoriacea, glaberrima, exsiccata, supra viridia, subtus aureo-fusca, 
novem aut decern pollices tonga, vix quatuor pottices lata. Petioli crassi, canalicu- 
lati, gtabri, 8 aut 9 tineas tongi. Stipulee nuttae ^ fructus facie drupae jugtandis ? 
foetus, gtobosus, viridis, foetus nucibus ! aut monospermus.— in Humboldt 
et Bonpland, Nov. Gen. tom. iii. ined. 
