THE 



THE 



sheltered, warm, conspicuous part of the shrub- 

 bery, to afford occasional covering from rigorous 

 frosts. 



They afford variety in green-house collections, 

 as well as in the shrubberies. 



THEOBROMA, a genus containing a plant 

 of the exotic tree kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Polyadelphia 

 Decandria, and ranks in the natural order of Co- 

 lumniferce. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a five- 

 leaved perianth : leaflets lanceolate, acute, spread- 

 ing, deciduous : the corolla has five petals, 

 smaller than the calyx : claws wide, arched, 

 concave like a helmet, emarginate at the tip, 

 scored internally with a thick triple line inserted 

 into the nectary at the base : borders roundish, 

 acuminate, spreading, each narrowed at the base 

 into a small claw which is from upright recurved, 

 and fastened into the claw : nectary a short 

 little pitcher, putting forth five little horns, 

 which arc awl-shaped, long, erect, acuminate, 

 bent in and converging, decurrent along the 

 pitcher: the stamina have five filiform filaments, 

 erect, bent outwards at top, lying within the 

 claws of the petals, growing externally to the 

 nectary, alternate with and shorter than the 

 horns : anthers on each filament two, (one on 

 each side at the tip,) vertical, one cell superior, 

 the other inferior : the pistillum is an ovate 

 germ : style filiform, (striated, Aubl.) a little 

 longer than the stamens: stigma five-cleft: the 

 pericarpium is an oblong capsule, coriaceous, 

 unequal, five-cornered, five-celled, valveless, not 

 opening: the seeds very many, subovate, nestling 

 in a buttery pulp, fastened to, a central columnar 

 receptacle. 



The species is T. Cacao, Chocolate Nut Tree. 



It grows in a very handsome form to the 

 height of twelve or sixteen feet: the trunk is 

 upright, and about as hiffh as a man before the 

 head spreads out : the wood is light and of a 

 white colour, and the bark is brownish and 

 even: the leaves lanceolate-oblong, bright green, 

 quite entire, alternate, from nine to sixteen 

 inches long, and three or four inches wide at 

 most, on a petiole an inch in length and thicken- 

 ed at both ends : the peduncles slender, about 

 eight or ten together, chiefly from the scars of 

 the fallen leaves ; one of them only for the most 

 part fruitful, the rest abortive: the flowers 

 small, reddish, inodorous : fruit smooth, yel- 

 low, red, or of both colours, about three inches 

 m diameter : rind fleshy, near half an inch in 

 thickness, flesh-coloured within: pulp whitish, 

 the consistence of butter, separating from the 

 rijid in a state of ripeness, and adhering to it 



only by filaments, which penetrate it and reach 

 to the seeds. Hence it is known when the seeds 

 are ripe, by the rattling of the capsule when it is 

 shaken: the pulp has a sweet and not unpleasant 

 taste, with a slight acidity; it is sucked and 

 eaten raw by the natives : it may be easily sepa- 

 rated into as many parts as there are seeds, to 

 which it adheres strongly, and they are wrapped 

 up in it, so that each seed seems to have its own 

 proper pulp : the seeds are about twenty-five in 

 number : when fresh they are of a flesh-colour : 

 gathered before they are ripe, they preserve them 

 in sugar, and thus they are very grateful to the 

 palate : they quicklv lose their power of vege- 

 tation, if taken out of the capsule, but kept in it 

 they preserve that power for a long time : the 

 tree bears leaves, flowers, and fruit all the year 

 through ; but the usual seasons for gathering 

 the fruit are June and December : in two years 

 from the seed it is above three feet high, and 

 spreads its branches, not more than five of which 

 are suffered to remain : before its third year is 

 complete it shows for fruit : a tree yields from 

 two to three pounds of seeds annually. It is a 

 native of South America. 



Culture. — It is increased by seed obtained from 

 abroad, sowing it as soon after its arrival as pos- 

 sible, in pots filled with light earth, and plun- 

 ging them in a bark-bed, where they will soon 

 come up ; and when the plants are about three 

 inches high, potting them off separately, and re- 

 plunging them in the bark-bed in the stove, 

 managing them as other woody exotics of the 

 stove kind afterwards. 



They afford an agreeable variety in stove col- 

 lections. 



THERMOMETER, an instrument construct- 

 ed for the purpose of measuring the degrees of 

 heat and cold at all seasons, arid which is of 

 great utility in the culture of tender exotic stove 

 plants, by serving as a guide to regulate the pro- 

 per degree of heat for the hot-houses containing 

 such plants. 



Their construction for this use consists of a 

 long slender glass tube, or pipe, about eighteen 

 inches or two feet long, having a small glass 

 ball or globe at the lower end ; and it is fixed 

 longitudinally on a brass or wooden plate or 

 frame, the same length, or longer, and four or 

 five inches broad ; the glass tube and ball being 

 furnished with a quantity of coloured liquid 

 spirit, or other fluid, which is affected by heat 

 and cold so as to ascend higher or lower in the 

 tube proportionably, a scale being marked on 

 the frame along each side of the tube, divided 

 into the different degrees of heat and cold : and 

 the spirit ascending by the heat of the internal 



