MILK OF THE COW-TREE. 
48 
the more aqueous liquid, are elastic, almost like caoutchouc ; 
but they undergo, in time, the same phenomena of putre- 
faction as gelatine. The people call the coagulum that 
separates by the contact of the air, cheese. This coagulum 
grows sour m the space of five or six days, as I observed in 
the small portions which I carried to Xueva Valencia. The 
milk contained in a stopped phial, Lad deposited a little 
coagulum; and, far from becoming fetid, it exhaled con- 
stantly a balsamic odour. The fresh juice mixed with cold 
water was scarcely coagulated at all ; but on the contact of 
nitric acid the separation of the viscous membranes took 
place. We sent two bottles of this milk to M. Eourcroy at 
Paris : in one it was in its natural state, and in the other, 
mixed with a certain quantity of carbonate of soda. The 
Trench consul residing in the island of St. Thomas, under- 
took to convey them to him. 
The extraordinary tree of which we have been speaking 
appears to be peculiar to the Cordillera of the coast, par- 
ticularly from Barbula to the lake of Maraeaybo. Some 
stocks of it exist near the village of San Mateo ; and, ac- 
cording to M. Bredemeyer, whose travels have so much 
enriched the fine conservatories of Schonbrunn and Vienna 
in the valley of Caucagua, three days journey east of Caracas! 
This naturalist found, like us, that the vegetable milk of the 
palo de vaca had an agreeable taste and an aromatic smell. 
At Caucagua, the natives call the tree that furnishes this 
nourishing juice, _ ‘the milk-tree’ (arbol del leche). They 
profess to recognize, from the thickness and colour of the 
foliage, the trunks that yield the most juice ; as the herds- 
man distinguishes, from external signs, a good milch-cow. 
Ao botanist has hitherto known the existence of this plant. 
It seems, according to M. Kunth, to belong to the sapota 
family. Long after my return to Europe, I found in the 
Description of the East Indies by Laet, a Dutch traveller, 
a passage that seems to have some relation to the cow-tree! 
“There exist trees,” says Laet,* “in the province of Cu- 
* “ Inter arbores quae sponte hie passim nascuntur, memorantur a 
scriptoribus Hispanis qusedam qua lacteum quemdam liquorem fundunt, 
qui durus admodum evadit instar gummi, et suavem odorem de se fundit; 
alia qua: liquorem quemdam edunt, instar laotis coagulati, qui in cibis ab 
ipsis usurpatur sine noxa.” (Among the trees growing here, it is re. 
