22 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 



to leap to the lips. One sees what one never saw before, 

 the fruit springing from the main trunk, quite close to 

 the ground. An old writer has explained that this is due 

 to a wise providence, because the pod is so heavy that 

 if it hung from the end of the branches it would fall off 

 before it reached maturity. The old writer talks of 

 providence ; a modern writer would see in the same 

 \ facts a simple example of evolution. On the same cacao 

 tree every day of the year may be found flowers, young 

 podkins and mature pods side by side. I say " found >: 

 advisedly at the first glance one does not see the 

 flowers because they are so dainty and so small. The 

 buds are the size of rice grains, and the flowers are not 

 more than half an inch across when the petals are fully 

 out. The flowers are pink or yellow, of wax-like appear- 

 ance, and have no odour. They were commonly stated 

 to be pollinated by thrips and other insects. Dr. von 

 Faber of Java has recently shown that whilst self- 

 pollination is the rule, cross fertilisation occurs between 

 the flowers on adjacent or interlocking trees. These 

 graceful flowers are so small that one can walk through 

 a plantation without observing them, although an 

 average tree will produce six thousand blossoms in a 

 year. Not more than one per cent, of these will become 

 fruit. Usually it takes six months for the bud to develop 

 into the mature fruit. The lovely mosses that grow on the 

 stems and branches are sometimes so thick that they 

 have to be destroyed, or the fragile cacao flower could 

 not push its way through. Whilst the flowers are small, 

 the leaves are large, being as an average about a foot in 

 length and four inches in breadth. The cacao tree never 

 appears naked, save on the rare occasions when it is 

 stripped by the wind, and the leaves are green all the 

 year round, save when they are red, if the reader 

 will pardon an Hibernianism. And indeed there is 

 something contrary in the crimson tint, for whilst 

 we usually associate this with old leaves about to fall, 

 with the cacao, as with some rose trees, it is the tint of 

 the young leaves. 



