CHAPTER II 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND CLIMATIC CONDITIONS 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. It is most probable that 

 the home country of cocoa is the region of the basins of 

 the Orinoco and the Amazon, with the valleys of their 

 tributary streams. 1 It is true that it has been reported 

 as growing wild in the forests of various other regions 

 e.g. Mexico, Trinidad, Martinique, Guiana, Ecuador, 

 Colombia but there is no proof that its presence in 

 these countries is really spontaneous. On the other 

 hand, it might be maintained that it is also doubtful 

 whether cocoa is indigenous to the forests of the Orinoco 

 and the Amazon region ; but the much larger number 

 of trees growing wild there make this more probable. 



The difficulty of tracing the place of origin is due to 

 the fact that at the time of the discovery of America, 

 cocoa had already been cultivated for centuries by the 

 Indians, whose nomad life helped to spread the valu- 

 able tree, which they appreciated so highly, all over 

 tropical America. Moreover, the ease with which cocoa 

 seeds are disseminated by different animals especially 

 monkeys, which often carry the fruits miles away 

 affords an explanation of the fact that in almost every 

 country where cocoa is grown, it is also found growing 

 wild in the forest, generally in groups of several 

 trees. This makes it impossible, when we find cocoa 

 growing wild, to say whether this growth is spontaneous 

 or not. 



1 De Candolle, L'Origine des plantcs cultiv&s, part ii. chap. v. 

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