DICOTYLEDONS OLEACE^E DIAGRAM 14. 



Another plant closely allied to the family Malvaceae is that 

 which produces chocolate. The Cacao is a tree which 

 grows to the height of thirty or forty feet, and bears 

 pale red flowers. It only grows in tropical America. 

 Its fruit is about four inches long, and resembles a 

 cucumber, but the outside is as hard as wood. Each 

 contains twenty or thirty seeds as large as almonds. 

 Chocolate is only a mixture of sugar, spices, and cacao 

 beans roasted and ground. These, like coffee beans, 

 only acquire their flavour when roasted. Cocoa is 



also prepared from the cacao beans. 

 Cacao-po d. 



FAMILY LINAGES. 

 [ DIAGRAM 15. ] 



This small family only contains one useful plant, but one of the 

 greatest importance, the Flax. It is very pretty, and would be 

 grown for ornament if it were not also a valuable textile plant 

 The corolla is of a beautiful caerulean blue, and has five petals ; 

 there are ten stamens, only five of which are provided with pollen 

 sacs. Flax is converted into linen in exactly the same manner 

 as hemp. It is pulled up, steeped, broken, and combed, to get rid 

 of what cannot be spun. The residue forms a very fine tow, much 

 finer and more compact than that of hemp, and from which muslins 

 and linens of the finest quality are manufactured. 



FAMILY OLEACB^E. 



[ DIAGRAM 14. ] 



The family Oleacece also contains only one plant of real import- 

 ance, the Olive. Its flowers are not remarkable. Its foliage is dark, 

 and composed of small, stiff, scattered leaves. The fruit is fleshy 



