12 



COCOA : ALL AIJOUT IT. 



the year; grow off the trunk and thickest parts of the boughs, 

 with stalks only an inch long. Humboldt saw the flower bursting 

 through the earth out of the root, and wondered at the prodigious 

 vital force of the plant. The flowers, which grow in tufts or 

 clusters, are very small, having five yellow petals on a rose- 

 coloured calyx. The fruit is five celled, without valves, from seven 

 to nine-and-a-half inches in length, and three to four inches in 

 breadth, of an elliptic, oval-pointed shape, something like the 

 vegetable marrow, only more elongated and pointed at the end, 

 tough and quite smooth, the colour varying, according to the season, 

 from bright yellow to red and purple. The rind of the fruit is very 



Pod, Leaves , 



-I'ud cut open shewing Seeds. 



thick and similar to a very hard, tough apple in substance, and has 

 a slightly sweet taste ; if allowed to ripen this changes into a shell 

 of a weak nature. The seeds contained in each pod vary in 



