II. 



THE COCOA TREE AND ITS FRUIT. 

 (" Thcobroma Cacao."} 



THE term " cocoa " is a corruption of " cacao," but is almost uni- 

 versally used in English-speaking countries. The cacao tree 

 belongs to the natural order of Sterculiacene, a family of about 

 41 genera and 521 species, inhabiting the warmer regions of the world. 

 None of them grow naturally in our climate or in Europe, and, except- 



ing the little yellow-flowered Mahernia, they are very seldom seen in 

 our conservatories. 



The first references to the tree and its products are found in the 

 accounts of the explorers and conquerors who followed Columbus. 

 Their descriptions are remarkably accurate in all essential particulars. 

 One of the earliest, if not indeed the very earliest, delineations of the 

 tree is in a rare volume by Bontekoe. 1 The engraving, which is here 



1 The figure in the left of the foreground is said by Bontekoe to represent the native method of procuring fire by 

 rapidly twirling a pointed stick in a groove of a piece of wood placed on the ground. 



