STEBCULIACEAE. 



229 



THEOBEOMA. Cacao. 

 ( Family Sterculiaceae ) . 



Tender small trees, flowering 

 and fruiting on spurs from the 

 trunk: evergreen. Twigs mode- 

 rate, terete: pith small, round, 

 continuous, white. Buds small, sol- 

 itary, sessile, subglobose, not evi- 

 dently scaly except for the stipules 

 of their leaves, the end-bud oblong 

 with a number of protruding 

 slender stipules. Leaf-scars al- 

 ternate, 2-ranked, very slightly 

 raised at the bottom, half-round 

 to nearly round: bundle-traces 3, 

 rather large: stipule-scars some- 

 what elongated. Leaves simple, 

 entire, petioled. 



Cauliflory, as flowering and 

 fruiting from the trunk or spurs 

 on it instead of from ordinary 

 branches is called, is considered 

 in detail by Huth in volume 30 



of the Ablandlungen of the Botanischer Verein der Provinz 

 Brandenburg. 



Cacao, or cocoa as English-speaking people too often call 

 it, like coffee and tea produces a stimulating alkaloid, which 

 in this case is theobromin while in the others it is caffein. 

 It has been esteemed for untold centuries, and was so common 

 in South America in the time of the Incas that its seeds are 

 said to have been strung like cash or wampum shells and 

 used in place of money, which in this instance possessed in- 

 trinsic value. 

 Twigs brown, puberulent or glabrescent. T. Cacao. 



