Am.  Jour.  Pharml 
February,  1904.  J 
Cocoa :  Its  Production  and  Use. 
57 
other  materials  offered  for  sale  by  newsboys  on  trains.  While  con- 
sidering this  portion  of  the  subject,  one  might  find  amusement  and 
profit  by  inquiring  into  the  facts  which  underlie  the  very  common 
offering  of  chewing-gum  and  chocolate  side  by  side  in  the  slot 
machines — the  former  being  usually  in  the  5  cent  side  of  the  machine 
and  the  latter  in  the  1  cent  side.  And  why  can  both  these  sell 
through  inanimate  machines,  while  the  cough  drop,  which  formerly 
had  the  streets  to  itself,  seems  to  require  not  only  a  man,  but  a  man 
in  continual  motion,  to  effect  a  profitable  number  of  sales. 
The  cocoa  trees  belong  to  the  large  plant  order  Sterculizcece t 
which  contains  nearly  fifty  genera  and  more  than  five  hundred 
species.  The  order  is  remarkable  because  of  the  immense  size  of 
some  of  its  trees.  The  Adansonia  digitata,  or  baobab  tree,  of  Africa, 
which  yields  the  fruit  called  monkey  bread,  often  has  a  trunk  more 
than  20  feet  in  diameter.  The  ceiba  trees  are  remarkable  not  only 
for  their  size,  but  also  for  the  immense  buttresses  which  bolster  up 
the  trunk  on  several  sides,  and  whose  bases  extend  many  feet  from 
the  center  of  the  tree.  The  order  includes  not  only  large  trees,  but 
also  shrubs  and  tender  herbs,  and,  as  might  be  expected  from  the 
large  number  of  its  species,  it  yields  many  economic  products,  such 
as  timbers,  medicines,  gums,  fibers,  foods,  etc.  The  most  important, 
and  among  the  most  interesting  of  the  Sterculiaceous  plants,  are  the 
cocoa  trees — the  source  of  cocoa,  chocolate  and  cocoa  butter.  The 
flowers  and  fruits  of  many  of  the  order  have  a  foul  odor,  and  hence 
the  ordinal  name  Sterculiacece,  from  the  Latin  Sterculius,  the  patron 
deity  of  manuring,  from  stercus,  meaning  dung.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  uncomplimentary  name  that  has  been  given  to  the  order 
the  deliciousness  ot  the  beverage  cocoa  has  gained  for  the  genus 
which  includes  the  cocoa  trees,  the  name  Theobroma,  meaning  a  food 
for  the  gods.  There  are  several  species  of  cocoa  trees  in  cultivation, 
but  the  most  important  of  them  is  the  Theobroma  cacao,  L.,  which  is 
cultivated  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  the  others.  Many  agricultural 
varieties  have  been  produced  through  selection  and  cultivation. 
The  tree  attains  a  heightfof  from  15  to  35  feet,  and  a  diameter  of 
from  12  to  15  inches.  The  trees  are  arranged  in  rows,  either  by 
planting  seeds  or  by  setting  out  nursery  plants.  At  a  little  distance 
the  plantation  resembles  in  a  general  way  an  apple  orchard,  the 
cocoa  trees  having  an  irregular  growth  like  the  apple,  and  the  trunk 
often  being  distorted  and  leaning  like  that  of  the  apple,  but  of  smaller 
