74 COCOA 



colour and whitish-violet seeds ; Criollo amarillo, with 

 yellow fruits and white seeds ; and Criollo mestizo, 

 which is a sort of intermediary between the two other 

 ones, but which seems to be rare. This classification, 

 however, is of no great importance. 



In Venezuela the Criollo is mainly cultivated near 

 the coast between the two rivers, Rio Yaracuy and Rio 

 Tuy. The local name is " cacao dulce," which means 

 " sweet cocoa," in opposition to " cacao amargo " or 

 " Trinitario amargo," which means "bitter cocoa" or 

 " bitter Forastero," and which comprises all the different 

 Forastero varieties. 



Ceylon Criollo. Ceylon Criollo or, as it is generally 

 called, " Old Red Ceylon " seems to be nothing but a 

 true Venezuela Criollo, which has perhaps changed a 

 little in the course of the seventy years it has been 

 grown in Ceylon. Most probably! the "Old Red," 

 also called in Ceylon the "Caracas variety," was the 

 only variety cultivated in the island before the 

 introduction of the Forastero in 1878. In his Report 

 for 1884, Dr. Trimen, at that time Superintendent of 

 the Botanic Gardens, wrote : " Cacao was grown at the 

 Botanic Gardens at Kalutara in 1819, and may have 

 been introduced by Moon, the Superintendent. But 

 most of the present cultivated cacao seems to have 

 been a consignment from Trinidad, obtained by Sir R. 

 Horton in 1834-35." As " most of the present culti- 

 vated cacao" in 1884 was "Old Red," it is very 

 probable that this variety was imported some seventy 

 years ago from Trinidad. At that time, however, true 

 Criollo was most probably no longer to be found in 

 Trinidad, as it was wholly destroyed by a blight in the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century. It is therefore 

 very probable that the " Old Red " was imported 

 through Trinidad from Venezuela. 



The pods of the " Old Red " are, like those of the 

 Venezuela Criollo, usually red in colour, seldom yellow, 

 the size generally small, the surface rough, the furrows 



1 Lock, Circular, p. 391. 



