82 



NATURAL IIISTOJIY OF PLANTS. 



each bundle. 1 The gynseceum is superior, formed like that of the 

 Byttneriads of an ovary, with five oppositipetalous cells, sur- 

 mounted by a style, with five stigmatiferous branches. But in the 

 interior angle of each cell there is a placenta bearing an indefinite 

 number of anatropous ovules, arranged in two transverse vertical 

 series, with their raphes turned towards each other. 2 The fruit is a 

 kind of berry 3 with a slightly fleshy wall, and which in the most 

 useful species of the common Cacao tree 4 has almost the shape of a 

 cucumber. Its exterior surface is rugose, mammillate, and traversed 

 by ten equidistant longitudinal projections. The mesocarp is 



Theobroma Cacao. 



Fig. 125, 



Flower (f ). 



Fig. 127. 

 Longitudinal section of flower. 



variable in colour 5 slightly fleshy, and indefinitely dried at ma- 

 turity. The endocarp continues at first like a soft pulp 6 in which 



1 In this case the third anther is superior and 

 mesial. 



2 They have three coats. 



3 It is described by most authors as a drupe 

 with a woody and plurilocular stone. " Fructus 

 drupaceus, pat amine lignoso 5-loculari." (B. 

 H., Gen.) But when it is ripe and still fresh, it 

 is fleshy to the surface of the seeds. There is 

 then a thin irregularly interrupted zone, which 

 at a certain distance outside the internal surface 

 of the endocarp is noticeable by its slightly woody 

 consistency ; but this appearance is due to fibro- 

 vascular fascicles tolerably near each other, and 

 the zone has not the characters of a real stone. 



4 T. Cacao L., Spec, 1100.— DC, Prodr., n. 

 1. — Cacao saliva Lamk.. 111., t. 653. — C. mint's 



G^rtn., t. 122.— C. Theobroma Tvss., Fl. Ant., 

 t. 13. 



5 Varying from pale yellow to bright red or 

 violet-purple, and very variable also as to its 

 more or less elongated form, and the greater or 

 less distinctness of the linear projections or of the 

 longitudinal grooves and of the inequalities of the 

 surface. Whence the possibility of distinguish- 

 ing several varieties and races, whose qualities 

 are slightly different, as happens in most of the 

 cultivated fruit trees. 



6 Its origin is still unknown, and can only be 

 certainly determined by the study of its develop- 

 ment. It must not be admitted at first-sight 

 that in its fleshy consistency it is analogous to 

 the hairs which envelope the seeds of Frioden- 



