FAMILY HERBAL. 53 



externally for wounds. A strong decoction of 

 then is made to wash old ulcers, and the juice is 

 applied to fresh hurts, and they say with great 

 success. 



The Chocolate Nut-tree. Cacao. 



THIS is an American tree, very beautiful, as 

 Well as very valuable for its fruit. The trunk 

 is of the thickness of a man's le<r, and the 

 height of fifteen feet ; but in this it diflVis 

 greatly according to the Foil ; and the size of the 

 fruit also will '.^fjr from the same cause, whence 

 some have talked of four different kinds of the 

 chocolate nut. The tree grows very regularly. 

 The surface is uneven, for the hark rises into 

 tubercles; the leaves are half a foot long-, three 

 inches broad, of a fine strong green, and pointed 

 at the ends. The flowers are small and yel- 

 lowish, and they grow in clusters from the 

 branches, and even from the trunk of the tree ; 

 but each has its separate stalk. The fruit is of 

 the shape of a cucumber, half a foot long, 

 and thicker than a man's wrist ; this is ridged, 

 and, when ripe, of a purplish colour, with some, 

 tinct of vellow. The cacao nuts, as thov are 

 called, are lodged within this fruit; every fruit 

 contains between twenty and thirty of them. They 

 are of the bigness of a large olive, but not, so 

 thick: and are composed of a woody shell, and a 

 large kernel, which atfords the chocolate. 



The common way of taking this in chocolate 

 is not the only one in which it may be given; 

 the nut itself may be put into electuaries. It is 

 very nourishing and restorative. 



