37o 
Commercial  Varieties  of  Cacao. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\     August,  1894. 
reddish  when  ripe.  In  the  pulpy  interior  are  five  loculi  which  con- 
tain from  twenty  to  forty  or  more  seeds.  One  of  the  fruits  is  shown, 
sectioned  transversely,  in  Fig.  iA. 
The  seeds  are  enveloped  in  a  fleshy  exterior  coat,  which,  in  pre- 
paring them  for  commerce,  is  usually  removed.  These  seeds  are 
three-fourths  of  an  inch  to  an  inch  in  length,  somewhat  compressed 
and  irregularly  ovate  or  ovate-oblong  in  form.  The  outer  remaining 
coat  is  reddish -brown,  with  several  conspicuous,  branching  veins 
Fig.  3. — Starch  from  Ariba  Cacao.    X  1500* 
radiating  from  the  chalaza,  and  running  toward  the  hilum  and 
micropylar  end  as  shown  in  Fig.  iB.  This  coat  is  tough-papery  in 
consistency,  and  when  stripped  off,  exposes  a  very  delicate  inner 
coat,  which  is  closely  applied  to  the  embryo  and  follows  its  convolu- 
tions. The  seed  is  almost  destitute  of  albumen,  the  latter  being 
represented  only  by  a  small  quantity  of  mucilaginous  material  in 
the  folds  and  creases  of  the  cotyledons. 
The  embryo,  after  the  seed  coats  have  been  removed,  is  shown  in 
Fig.  iC.  Its  thick,  fleshy  and  somewhat  unequal  cotyledons  are 
strongly  creased  and  crumpled.   The  color  varies  greatly  in  different 
