54 BOTANY AND NOMENCLATUEE. 



long run I am sure would pay very handsomely. There are- 

 excellent kinds already on Trinidad fields and the best of these 

 should be propagated by grafting and grown under local names, 

 such as Gordon's " Excelsior Cacao," Leotaud's " Promise Cacao," 

 A"ostini's " Surprise Cacao," De Gannes " Best of all Cacao" — 

 ■which would be infinitely preferable to retaining names such as 

 Criollo, Forastero, by which the various kinds can only be very 

 indefinitely and sometimes very inaccurately identified. 



The finest cacao is by general consent admitted to be 

 produced by the Criollo, and this is assumed to be identical or 

 similar in character to that called the Caracas variety. I think 

 however there is considerable doubt if this idea is correct. In 

 the Consular Report on the agricultural condition of Columbia, 

 Consul Dickson mentions that " the variety chiefly grown in 

 " Columbia is different to that of Venezuela, which produces 

 " Caracas cacao, the pods being much larger, and containing a 

 " greater number oj beans, but as the number oj pods produced 

 " by a tree is greater, it is probable that on the whole the Vene- 

 " euelan variety is the more productive of the two. The quality 

 " of Columbian cacao is little, ij at all, inferior to that oftJie 

 " Venezuelan, but it is littte known in com,merce, as only an 

 " insignificant amount is exported^ the supply scarcely satisfying 

 " the demand of the country." 



What this variety may be, we have no means of correctly 

 ascertaining, but the comparison with the Caracas variety 

 indicates that it is very near to, if not synonymous with our 

 Forastero, and it is to be noted that such a variety would also 

 be " Forastero" or foreign to the Caracas people. 



The late Dr. Trimen of Ceylon, in his Annual Repcjrt for 

 1890, fell into the error of interpreting the word " Criollo" or 

 Creole as being synonymous with " wild." 



It is well known, however, that the word is never used in this 

 sense in the West Indies, the true interpretation of the word 

 " Creole" being — one born iii a country or one belonging to a 

 country. With European Anglicans the word " Creole" is 

 generally supposed to have reference to a mixture of races, but 

 it is not used in that sense in the West Indies or Jamaica. 



For instance, a child born of white parents in any West 

 Indian Island, or even on the mainland of Central and South 

 America, is a " Creole," a:nd just as much so, as a black or 

 colourecl child would be. In fact, " Creole" should be translated 

 as "native" and not " wiW" or Coloured; a black or coloured 

 child being just as much a Creole, as a white one or a mulatto 

 and vice versa. 



