BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS 47 



and the older parts of the branches (Fig. 9), the young 

 twigs bearing no blossoms. This fact, however, is 

 neither peculiar nor essential, for closely related species 

 differ from the cocoa plant in this respect. Take the 

 case of Theobroma bicolor, which grows in Central 

 America ; this species has no importance from an 

 industrial point of view, but the way in which it forms 

 its blossoms helps us to understand the flowering of the 



FIG. 10. Young twig of Theobroma bicolor, showing the arrangement of the 

 blossoms in the axils of the young leaves. 



cocoa plant. Like the ordinary cocoa plant, Theobroma 

 bicolor puts forth new shoots several times each 

 year, but these shoots bear the flowers in the axils of 

 the young leaves (Fig. 10). The flowers themselves 

 are arranged in clusters which show a central (or 

 primary) axis which bifurcates into two lateral shoots 

 (secondary axis) of nearly equal strength, which 

 generally bifurcate again, and so on. This sort of 

 flower cluster is called in botany a dichasium (Fig. 11). 

 In the ordinary cocoa plant (Theobroma cacao), the 

 flowers are formed in the same way, but the appearance 



