STERCULIACEAE. . 229 
THEOBROMA. Cacao. 
(Family Sterculiaceae). 
Tender small trees, flowering 
and fruiting on spurs from the 
trunk: evergreen. Twigs mode- 
rate, terete: pith small, round, 
continuous, white. Buds small, sol- 
itary, sessile, subglobose, not evi- 
dently scaly except for the stipules 
of their leaves, the end-bud oblong 
with a number of protruding 
slender stipules. Leaf-scars _ al- 
ternate, 2-ranked, very slightly 
raised at the bottom, half-round 
to nearly round: bundle-traces 3, 
rather large: stipule-scars some- 
what elongated. Leaves simple, 
entire, petioled. 
Cauliflory, as flowering and 
fruiting from the trunk or spurs 
on it instead of from ordinary 
branches is called, is considered 
in detail by Huth in volume 30 
of the Ablandlungen of the Botanischer Verein der Provinz 
Brandenburg. 
Cacao, or cocoa aS English-speaking people too often call 
it, like coffee and tea produces a stimulating alkaloid, which 
in this case is theobromin while in the others it is caffein. 
It has been esteemed for untola centuries, and was so common 
in South America in the time of the Incas that its seeds are 
said to have been strung like cash or wampum shells and 
used in place of money,—which in this instance possessed in- 
trinsic value. 
Twigs brown, puberulent or glabrescent. T. Cacao. 
