COCOA AND VANILLA. 433 



and Bignoniacese. There also grows the Crescentia cujete, or Calabash- 

 tree, which is likewise found in the Antilles; it has a tortuous trunk, 

 long branches extended horizontally, and ovoid fruits, clothed with a 

 hard woody bark, which the Indians fabricate into vessels of divers 

 forms, painting them in the liveliest colours. 



Mexico is the country of the Morus tinctoria and the Hcema- 

 toxylon Oampechianum. These two trees furnish the dye-wood 

 which forms so important an article of commerce : the first, under 

 the name of the " yellow wood of Tampico " or " Tuspan ; " the 

 second, under that of " Campeachy wood." It is in the hottest and 

 most humid parts of the southern provinces of this Republic that we 

 meet, for the first time, with one of the most precious trees of the 

 Equinoctial Zone, the Cacao-tree (Theobroma cacao), whose bruised 

 and roasted seeds, mixed with variable amounts of sugar and starch, 

 form the different kinds of Cocoa; or, sweetened and flavoured with 

 vanilla or other substances, the article known as Chocolate. It is 

 but a small tree, with large entire leaves, and clustered flowers grow- 

 ing from the sides of the old stems and branches. Its large pen- 

 tagonal fruits vary from six to ten inches in length and three to five 

 in breadth, and contain between fifty and a hundred seeds. 



The Vanilla planifolia, another Mexican native, famous for its 

 succulent fruit, is a plant of the Orchidaceous order, which climbs 

 about other trees in the manner of ivy. It is the only genus of the 

 family which possesses any economical value. The delicate perfume 

 of its fruit is due to the presence of benzoic acid, which forms in 

 crystals upon the pod, if left undisturbed. 



Already, in Central America, we encounter the first ranks, the 

 vanguard, as it were, of those vast impenetrable forests which spread 

 over the whole northern region of South America to the banks of the 

 Amazon, and cover with dense foliage immense areas in Guiana and 

 Brazil. If we would pause again to wonder at the Giants of the 

 Vegetable Kingdom, we shall find many well worthy of our considera- 

 tion. Such, for example, is the Bertholletia excelsa, a colossal Lecy- 



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