VARIOUS FOOD-PLANTS 



103 



Fir,. 111. — Pineapple (Ananas sativus, Pineapple Family, Brontdidccc^). 

 A, flowering shoot, bearing the cone-like cluster of flowers each pro- 

 tected by a bract. B, fruit, showing continuation of the shoot from its 

 tip. C, a flower. D, same, cut verticallj'. E, a petal, with two scales 

 at the base, and a single attached stamen. F, calyx and style with 

 branching stigma. G, ovary, cut across. H, ovule. (Koch, Le Maout 

 and Decaisne.) — A perennial herb with short stem and tough pale 

 green leaves; flowers bluish; fruit reddish or orange. New plants are 

 grown from the tuft of leaves crowning the fruit. 



"cocoanut" and which is a plant totally different from the 

 one that gives us chocolate, as may be seen by a glance at 

 Figs. 115 and 34. Cacao is a much better name for the plant 

 and product from which chocolate is manufactured, for it 

 is the name commonly used in tropical America where the 

 plant grows, and is applied to no other sort. It is the seeds 

 which afford the cacao of commerce. Separated from the 

 fleshy pulp of the somewhat squash-like fruits, the seeds 

 are placed in tight boxes or otherwise massed with exclusion 

 of air, and allowed to undergo for some days a process of 

 fermentation or "sweating," whereby their peculiar flavor is 

 developed. This accomphshed, they are dried liy exposure 

 to the sun, daily, for two or three weeks, when they assume a 



