° 
BOTANIC MATERIA MEDICA. 273 
fixed oil, sugar, muctlage, proteids, a crystalliz- 
able substance termed 77czz, a poisonous mat- 
ter an a/buminotd—compound. The seeds are 
cathartic and emetic, but are not used as a med- 
icine in modern times; from them we obtain 
the castor oil of commerce. The name is de- 
rived from a Greek word which signifies a tick, 
also the Latin rzczmus, a tick, because the seeds 
resemble the dog-tick in appearance. The 
plant wascultivated by Albertus Magnus, bishop 
of Ratisbon, in the middle of the thirteenth 
century. 
Theobroma Cacao, Cocoa or Cacao Tree — - 
Natural order Byttneriaceze. This small treeis 
said to be a native of Mexico and the tropical 
Americas, and cultivated in the West Indies and 
Guayaquil. The tree rarely exceeds a height 
of 20 feet, and is adorned with large, oblong, 
lanceolate leaves; flowers of a red color, with 
5 petals and 15 stamens, in axillary clusters, 
while the pistils number as many as 10. Fruit 
indehiscent, oval in shape, large, yellow and 
cucumber-like in appearance, the capsule fleshy, 
thick and 5-celled, and each cell having from 8 
to ro seeds piled one uponanother. Seeds ovate 
or ovate-oblong in shape, about 4 of an inch 
(20 millimeters) long, having a thin, delicate 
testa of a brown color; the hilum of the seed is 
_ at the larger end, whilst the chalza is at the 
apex, in this wise reversing the order of seeds. 
The mode of preparing the seeds for com- 
merce is of two ways—drying them by means of 
clay while in the fruit, or drying after they 
have been removed from the fruit; this process 
not only cures the seeds, but removes much of 
