38 THEOBROMA CACAO 



Both cocoa and chocolate are very largely used for the prepara- 

 tion of agreeable and nutritious beverages ; indeed, the generic 

 name Theobroma was given to the tree yielding cocoa seeds by 

 Linnaeus, to mark his high opinion of the agreeable and valuable 

 properties of the beverages prepared from them, although Belzoni, 

 a traveller of the sixteenth century, regarded them in a very 

 different light, for he declared that cocoa was a drink " fitter for 

 a pig than for a man." Cocoa and chocolate are not such 

 refreshing and stimulating beverages as tea and coffee, but they 

 are much more nutritious in consequence of the large quantity of 

 concrete oil (Oleum Theobroma) they contain, although, from the 

 same cause, they disagree with many persons. To such persons 

 cocoa nibs should be recommended. 



Cocoa and chocolate form the common unfermented beverages of 

 about fifty millions of persons in Spain, Italy, France, and Central 

 America, and it has been estimated that more than 100,000,000 Ibs. 

 of cocoa seeds are annually consumed in these countries,|ppain 

 alone consuming forty millions of pounds. Cocoa is also now 

 largely used in this country, and its consumption has enormously 

 increased of late years. Thus, in 1820 the consumption of cocoa 

 seeds was only 276,321 Ibs., in 1860 it had increased to 4,583,124 

 Ibs., while in 1873 it was over eight millions of pounds. 



Cocoa seeds owe their properties to the concrete oil already fully 

 described (Oleum Theobromee) , and to an alkaloid named theo- 

 bromin, which resembles both them and caffein, the alkaloids 

 respectively of tea and coffee, both in its chemical characters and 

 effects. (See Tea and Coffee.) 



Per. Mat. Med., by B. and R., p. 920; Pharmacographia, p. 88; 

 U. S. Disp., by W. and B., p. 620; Bentl. Man. Bot., p. 440 ; 

 Chem. Gaz., Aug. 15, 1854, p. 306 ; Soc. Arts JL, March 13, 



1874. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE. 



Drawn from a specimen in the tropical house of the Royal Gardens, Kew, 

 flowering in June. The fruit added from a specimen preserved in spirit in the 

 British Museum. 1. Portion of the trunk bearing flowers and foliage. 2. A 

 single flower. 3. A petal. 4. The staminal whorl partly cut away and 

 flattened out. 5. Vertical, and 6, transverse sections of ovary. 7. Fruit. 

 8. Seed. 9. Embryo. 10. The same, with one cotyledon removed. (2 6 

 enlarged.) 



