CHAPTER V. 



PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SEEDS. 



Article I. — Seeds used for Food. 



Cacao — Theohroma Cacao, Linii?eus. 



The genus Theohroma, of the order BytineriacecB, 

 allied to the Malvaceoe, consists of fifteen to eighteen 

 species, all belonging to tropical America, principally in 

 the hotter parts of Brazil, Guiana, and Central America. 



The common cacao, Theohroma Cacao, is a small tree 

 wild in the forests of the Amazon and Orinoco basins ^ 

 and of their tributaries up to four hundred feet of alti- 

 tude. It is also said to grow wild in Trinidad, which 

 lies near the mouth of the Orinoco.^ I find no proof that 

 it is indigenous in Guiana, although it seems probable. 

 Many early writers indicate that it was both wild and 

 cultivated at the time of the discovery of America from 

 Panama to Guatemala and Campeachy ; but from the 

 numerous quotations collected by Sloane,'^ it is to be 

 feared that its wild character was not sufficiently verified. 

 Modern botanists are not very explicit on this head, and 

 in general they only mention the cacao as cultivated in 

 these regions and in the West India Islands. G. Ber- 

 noulli,'* who had resided in Guatemala, only says, " wild 



^ Humboldt, Vox/., ii. p. 511; Kuntli, in Humboldt and Bonpland, 

 Nova Genera, t. p. 316 ; Martius, JJeher den Cacao, in Biichner, Repert. 

 Pharm. 



2 Scbach, in Grisebach, Flora of Brit. W. Ind. Is., p. 91. 



' Sloane, Jamaica, ii. p. 15. 



* G. Bernoulli, Uehersicht der Arten von Theohroma, p. 5. 



