70 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



The produce of one tree in Jamaica was generally esti- 

 mated at about twenty pounds of nuts. The produce per 

 acre was rated at one thousand pounds per annum, allow- 

 ing for bad years. 



The chocolate- tree grows to about six feet high before 

 the head spreads out, and it seldom exceeds from six- 

 teen to twenty feet in the whole height, the boughs and 

 branches beautifully extending themselves on every side, 

 resembling the heart cherry-tree, the leaves being much 

 of the same shape. The tree bears leaves, flowers, and 

 fruit, all the year through ; but the usual seasons for ga- 

 thering the fruit are June and December. The flowers 

 spring from the trunk and large branches ; they are small, 

 but beautiful, and sometimes pale red, but most com- 

 monly of a saffron colour : the pods are oval and pointed, 

 and contain from ten to thirty nuts each, almost like 

 almonds, adhering to one another by soft filaments, 

 and enclosed in a white pulpy substance, soft and sweet, 

 which some persons suck when they take them out of the 

 shells. The pods change from green to a yellowish co- 

 lour when they reach their maturity, which is known by 

 the rattling of the nuts, when the pods are shaken. When 

 gathered, it is usual to lay the pods in heaps to sweat for 

 three or four days before they are opened ; they are then 

 exposed upon mats or skins, to the sun, every day for 

 about a month. 



The cacao-tree is permitted to bear a moderate crop of 

 fruit the fourth year after the seed has been sown : but if 

 the plant is weak, a greater quantity of the blossoms are 

 gathered, in order that it may recover strength. The tree 

 attains its full perfection in eight years : after that it will 

 continue to produce fruit for thirty years or more, if 

 planted in a good soil ; but it is obnoxious to blights, and 

 shrinks from the first appearance of drought. In early 

 times the planters had many superstitious notions con- 



