BOTANY AND NOMENCLATURE 5 



class cacao, and as the trees are generally good and regular 

 bearers, this variety is selected by some planters as more 

 suited to their purpose than trees bearing a better quality 

 of produce, but it never obtains the same prices, although 

 it may give remunerative returns. 



In the foregoing description of really ideal type varieties, 

 it should be fully understood that the cacao of the West 

 Indies, in fact of most countries, consists of a hetero- 

 geneous mixture of cross-bred varieties of the one species 

 {Theobroma cacao), though of late years it is thought possible 

 that the common species may have become hybridised 

 with Theobroma pentagona. Of this there is no positive 

 proof, the strongest evidence being that the beans of the 

 CrioUo on the estates where pentagona is grown are much 

 larger than on estates where it is absent, T. pentagona 

 having the largest bean of any known species. In general, 

 however, it is hard to say where one form begins and 

 another ends. On most cacao estates, pods may be found 

 illustrating by almosjb imperceptible differences the passage 

 from CrioUo on the one hand to Calabacillo on the other. 

 In a paper read by the author before the first West Indian 

 Agricultural Conference held at Barbados in 1899, it was 

 stated : 



The only attempt hitherto made for the impiovement of the quality of cacao 

 is by selection of seed by external characters and the import of seed from other 

 countries. The result is that to-day, although the remains of the original 

 types are clearly apparent, it is abo clear that, though bringing good prices, 

 the cacao as now grown is as a whole nothing less and nothug more than an 

 aggregation of cross-bred varieties. Some few might attempt to do so, but I 

 think a wise planter would hesitate if he were asked to show where Criollo 

 ended and Forastero began, or where Forastero ended and Calabacillo began. 

 The fact is that the cacao of the West Indies is nothing more or less than a 

 mixture of various strains, which again vary in and among themselves in no 

 certain direction, and among which the characters of the ancient types appear 

 more or less developed according to the character of their surroundings and 

 the numerous influences which have been brought to bear upon them. The 

 quality of the cacao produced from these strains (or types) is varifible, some 

 selling for good prices, while other brands are decidedly inferior. The character 

 of the leaves, the form of growth, the colour and form of the fruit, the size, 

 shape, and colour of the interior of the bean are all variable to a degree, and 

 few trees can be found which are the exact counterpart one of the other either 

 in their produce or the vegetative characters. 



The discovery (by the author in 1898) that cacao can easily be grafted by 

 approach now puts into the hands of the planter means whereby he can secure 

 a crop of one pEurticular kind or kinds at will, and further it will enable him 



