350 NEW AMERICAN ORCHARDIST. 



consistence of new bread. It is roasted before it is eaten. 

 It is slightly sweet, and its taste somewhat insipid at first. 

 Two or three of the trees of the bread fruit will suffice for 

 a man's yearly supply. 



Raised from seeds, layers, or suckers. 



CASHEW NUT. (Anacardium.) 



A native of the East and West Indies and of the Brazils. 

 The tree grows to the height of twenty feet, with leaves 

 like a walnut in form and odor ; the flowers in tufts, and 

 odoriferous. The fruit is in size like an apple, of a white, 

 yellow, or red color ; its taste like a cherry most of them 

 sweet and pleasant, but sometimes sharp and astringent. 

 The expressed juice affords a fine rough wine, and, by dis- 

 tillation, a spirit superior to arrack, rum, or brandy. The 

 seed is not enclosed in the fruit, but grows on its summit ; 

 it is kidney-shaped ; its hard, rough, black shell encloses 

 a large kernel, the finest in the world. When roasted, they 

 are far superior to pistachios and almonds, and ground 

 with cacao, they make superior chocolate. From the trunk 

 there annually exudes often ten or twelve pounds of a fine 

 semi-transparent gum, similar in quality and equal to gum 

 arabic. The tree produces fruit the third year, and con- 

 tinues productive one hundred years. 



CACAO. (Cacao theobroma.) 



The chocolate tree is a native of South America, and of 

 Mexico. It is there an article of commerce, next only to 

 gold and silver. The tree is beautiful, rising from sixteen 

 to twenty feet in height; it resembles the cherry tree in 

 its form and its leaves, and is splendid when in bloom. 

 The flowers are small, scarlet and yellow. The fruit is an 

 oval-pointed pod, enclosing from ten to thirty compressed 

 nuts, an inch in diameter, enveloped in a soft, sweet pulp, 

 of a refreshing taste. When ripe, the pulp and seeds are 

 separated from the pod, and laid on platforms, in masses, to 

 sweat for two days, when they are washed and dried in the 

 sun. The fresh fruit of the chocolate tree, eaten raw, is 

 highly antiscorbutic ; and the nuts, when roasted and 

 ground, are moulded into cakes of chocolate a highly- 

 esteemed, nutritious, and wholesome food. In France, 

 small cakes of chocolate sweetened with sugar, and of 



