JPABLT III. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Botany and Nomenclature of Cacao with Description of 

 Typical Forms, &c., &c. 



HE name wliich Linnaeus conferreH upon this 

 plant is derived from the Gree!k 'J'fieos (god) and 

 Broma food, or " Food for the gods." 



There are several species of tlie genus, wliich is 

 native of tropical regions extending from Mexico 

 to Brazil, and among the known species are the 

 following: — Theobromn hicolor, T. guianehsis, T. nylrestris. T. 

 ovaiifolia, T. anc/ustifoUa, T. fp.ntagona, all said to ho distinct 

 from our cultivated Thpohrotna cacao, L., and its varieties wliich 

 is the kind from which the miijor quantity of the^ marketable 

 product known as Cacao or " Cocoa" is derived. 



The Mexicans give to Theobroma cacao the name of Cacao- 

 -quahuitl, which has been in a great measure retained in the 

 woid chocolate. Trees of Theobroma cacao grow in some places 

 to forty feet in height, the writer having seen them of this size 

 in tlie province of Veragna in 1885, but the usual height of tlie 

 Trinidad tree averages about fifteen or twenty feet, the lateral 

 diameter of its branches being abouC the same measurement. 

 In Grenada, Tobago and St. Vincent the trees are generally of 

 smaller size. 



The Botanical characters of the genus are given ia 

 -Grisebach's Flora of the British West Indies, p. 91, as follows : — 



ORDER STERCULIACEiE— Tribe Buettnerie.^. 



Ctihx 5 ipartite, colored. Petiils 5 : liirib cucullate, ivith a terminal, spathu- ■ 

 late appcn()a,^e. Column 10 fid , fertile lobes bi-.intheriferoiis : anthers bilocular. 

 Style yfid. Fruit baccate, ^-celled: cells pulpv. polyspermous. Embryo exal- 

 .bumiiioiis: cotyledons fleshy, corrugate. Tiees; kivet. entire ; pedicels fascicled or 

 solitary, lateral. 



