BRANCHING AND FLOWERING HABITS OF CACAO AND 
PATASHTE. 
By O. F. Coox. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Cacao and patashte are tropical trees of the family Sterculiaceae. 
The cacao tree is familiar to botanists under the name Theobroma 
cacao! The patashte is closely related to the cacao, but has been 
placed recently in a different genus, receiving the name Tribroma 
- bicolor? Both trees are widely cultivated among the Indians of 
Central and South America for the sake of their edible seeds, those 
of the cacao tree affording the raw material for the manufacture of 
chocolate. 
Features of general botanical interest are presented by these trees 
in their peculiar habits of branching and floral specializations. The 
branching habits of the patashte are similar to those of the cacao and 
in some respects are even more peculiar, so that they afford one of 
the most striking illustrations of the phenomenon of branch dimor- 
phism. But notwithstanding this general agreement in manner of 
branching, cacao and patashte differ widely in their habits of flowering 
and fruiting and the structures of their floral organs. 
Though the patashte tree had always been treated botanically as 
very closely related to the cacao, a detailed comparison of the two 
trees in eastern Guatemala in 1906 showed so many differences that 
it seemed necessary to look upon the patashte as the type of a dis- 
tinct genus. Another visit to Guatemala, in 1914, afforded an oppor- 
tunity of repeating the observations and of securing additional speci- 
mens and photographs. A preliminary account of the genus Tribroma 
was published in 1915.° | 
The patashte tree, as well as the cacao, produces gourdlike elliptical 
pods filled with large fleshy seeds, which are used in the same manner 
11, Sp. Pl. 782. 1753. 
2 Tribroma bicolor (Humb. & Bonpl.) Cook, Journ. Washington Acad. Sci. 5: 288. 
1915. 
Theobroma bicolor Humb. & Bonpl. Pl. Aequin. 1: 94. pls. 30a, 30b. 1808. 
3 Cook, O. F. Tribroma, a New Genus Related to Theobroma. Journ. Washington 
Acad. Sci. 5: 287-289. 1915, 
609 
