116 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. VIII.— B. S. 
round seeds, which are occasionally offered for sale by 
the Indians, and from which chocolate of a flavour 
superior to that of the common cacao is manufac¬ 
tured. Some day this chocolate-tree will doubtless he 
extensively grown by Europeans; and, as it occurs in 
these woods together with the common naturalized 
cacao, it may have been cultivated when this district 
was more thickly inhabited by Indians than it is at 
present. 
The Chontales gold region appears to be a favourite 
haunt of plants with variegated leaves. There are 
some fine species of Costus (including, besides the 
well-known C. zebrinus and Malortianus , several new 
ones); two beautiful species of Cissus, one with bright 
scarlet flowers (introduced by me into English gar¬ 
dens); and several Marantacem and Aroidese. But 
the finest of these is the one I have named Cyrtodeira 
Chontalensis , a Gresneraceous plant. The leaves are 
purple on the under side, and on the upper light green 
(like those of Begonia smaragdina ), with very dark 
green blotches. The flowers, which appear in Novem¬ 
ber and December, are lilac, and as large as a crown 
piece, with a yellow centre, and a whitish tube. The 
roots are fibrous (not catkin-like rhizomes, as in the 
Achimenes tribe); and in habit the plant resembles 
the only other known species of the genus (C. cu- 
preata , Hanstein), which, however, has smaller and 
scarlet flowers, and a hairy ovary. It was found at 
the Pavon end of the Javali Mine, where it grew in 
only a very small spot—shady groves on the banks of 
a rivulet. Although we became afterwards well ac- 
