268 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



materials for our own factories come chiefly from 

 Trinidad. 



The cacao is a small tropical tree whose hard 

 seeds furnish the cocoa and chocolate of com- 

 merce. "Cocoa" is merely a misspelling of the 

 Spanish name of the tree. When the botanist, 

 Linnaeus, was called upon to give the tree a 

 scientific name, he sampled its fruit in the form 

 of a cup of hot chocolate. So happy it made the 

 great man to know that any tree could produce so 

 delicious a beverage, he did not hesitate a moment. 

 He called it "Theobroma," which means "food 

 of the gods." By that name botanists all call 

 the cacao trees. 



Off in the river bottoms of parts of Central and 

 South America, the Theobroma grows wild. The 

 trees are also found in rank forests in British 

 Guiana, under Dutch rule called Demarara. 



When the Spanish explorers came to Mexico 

 first they found the natives growing plantations of 

 cacao trees they had transplanted from the wilds. 

 From that day the cultivation of the tree has 

 spread to the tropics of all countries. 



The traveller who visits the cacao plantations 

 notes with surprise that the cultivated trees do 

 not differ from the wild ones; that new orchards 

 are grown from seed, or from little trees dug out 



