The Natural System of Botany. 233 



jng into huge, horizontal branches. In the interior of Africa, 



the natives cut off the heads, and hollow out the trunks, which 



serve them for tanks to hold water. 

 A far taller and more elegant Jree is the Ceiba-tree {Bombax 



Ceiba) of the West Indies. This is one of the most magnifi- 

 cent o( vegetable creations, sometimes rising to the height of 

 a hundred and fifty feet. A description of the Ceiba-tree, as 

 it appears in its native country, by an esteemed friend and 

 correspondent, will be found on another page. This, as well as 

 other species of Bombax, bears a kind of silky cotton, which 

 is used for stuffing cushions and beds ; but it cannot be spun 

 into threads, like the true cotton. 



Order — Bromace^s. The Cacao Tribe. 



This order is also nearly allied to the Mallows, from which 

 it differs in some of the species having no petals, the sta- 

 mens of some being often abortive, and the number of carpels 

 being less. The most interesting plant of the order is the 

 Theobroma Cacao, which produces the material used for ma- 

 king chocolate. This tree is a native of Mexico and South 

 America, and usually grows to the height of from twenty to 

 thirty feet ; its leaves are large, oblong and pointed ; the 

 flowers are small, reddish, and without fragrance. The fruit 

 is yellow or red, of an oval shape, about three inches long, 

 covered with rounded protuberances, and marked by ten fur- 

 rows. The seeds are imbedded in a whitish pulp, with a 

 sweet, and not unpleasant taste. This pulp is removed from 

 the seeds, after which they are dried in the sun, and then 

 roasted, by which their hard husks are detached. The interior 

 kernel is beaten into a paste* dried, and formed into rolls for 

 exportation or use. In Mexico, chocolate is the common bev- 

 erage, being, indeed, an article of prime necessity. Its use is 

 also universal in the West India Islands, and immense quanti- 

 ties are consumed in Spain and France. In the United States, 

 the prepared cocoa, made of the shells of the cocoa-nut, is 

 generally preferred to chocolate, as being easier of digestion, 

 and not so oily. 



