before, the fruit springing from the main trunk, quite close to the
ground. An old writer has explained that this is due to a wise
providence, because the pod is so heavy that if it hung from the end of
the branches it would fall off before it reached maturity. The old
writer talks of providence; a modern writer would see in the same facts
a simple example of evolution. On the same cacao tree every day of the
year may be found flowers, young podkins and mature pods side by side. I
say "found" advisedly--at the first glance one does not see the flowers
because they are so dainty and so small. The buds are the size of rice
grains, and the flowers are not more than half an inch across when the
petals are fully out. The flowers are pink or yellow, of wax-like
appearance, and have no odour. They were commonly stated to be
pollinated by thrips and other insects. Dr. von Faber of Java has
recently shown that whilst self-pollination is the rule, cross
fertilisation occurs between the flowers on adjacent or interlocking
trees. These graceful flowers are so small that one can walk through a
plantation without observing them, although an average tree will produce
six thousand blossoms in a year. Not more than one per cent. of these
will become fruit. Usually it takes six months for the bud to develop
into the mature fruit. The lovely mosses that grow on the stems and
branches are sometimes so thick that they have to be destroyed, or the
fragile cacao flower could not push its way through. Whilst the flowers
are small, the leaves are large, being as an average about a foot in
length and four inches in breadth. The cacao tree never appears naked,
save on the rare occasions when it is stripped by the wind, and the
leaves are green all the year round, save when they are red, if the
reader will pardon an Hibernianism. And indeed there is something
contrary in the crimson tint, for whilst we usually associate this with
old leaves about to fall, with the cacao, as with some rose trees, it is
the tint of the young leaves.

[Illustration: CACAO PODS.]



_The Cacao Pod._

The fruit, which hangs on a short thick stalk, may be anything in shape
from a melon to a stumpy, irregular cucumber, according to the botanic
variety. The intermediate shape is like a lemon, with furrows from end
to end. There are pods, called Calabacillo, smooth and ovate like a
calabash, and there are others, more rare, so "nobbly" that they are
well-named "Alligator." The pods vary in length from five to eleven
inches, "with here and there the great pod of all, the blood-red
_sangre-tora_." The colours of the pods are as brilliant as they are
various. They are rich and strong, and resemble those of the rind of the
pomegranate. One pod shows many shades of dull crimson, another grades
from gold to the yellow of leather, and yet another is all lack-lustre
pea-green. They may be likened to Chinese lanterns hanging in the woods.
One does not conclude from the appearance of the pod that the contents
are edible, any more than one would surmise that tea-leaves could be
used to produce a refreshing drink. I say as much to the planter, who
smiles. With one deft cut with his machete or cutlass, which hangs in a
leather scabbard by his side, the planter severs the pod from the tree,
and with another slash cuts the thick, almost woody rind and breaks open
the pod. There is disclosed a mass of some thirty or forty beans,
covered with juicy pulp. The inside of the rind and the mass of beans
are gleaming white, like melting snow. Sometimes the mass is pale
amethyst in colour. I perceive a pleasant odour resembling melon. Like
little Jack Horner, I put in my thumb and pull out a snow-white bean. It
is slippery to hold, so I put it in my mouth. The taste is sweet,
something between grape and melon. Inside this fruity coating is the
bean proper. From different pods we take beans and cut them in two, and
find that the colour of the bean varies from purple almost to white.

[Illustration: CUT POD, REVEALING THE WHITE PULP ROUND THE BEANS
(CEYLON.)]

[Illustration: CACAO PODS, SHEWING BEANS INSIDE.]



_Botanical Description._

Theobroma Cacao belongs to the family of the _Sterculiaceae_, and to the
same order as the Limes and Mallows. It is described in Strasburger's
admirable _Text-Book of Botany_ as follows:

     "Family. _Sterculiaceae._

    IMPORTANT GENERA. The most important plant is the Cocoa Tree
    (_Theobroma Cacao_). It is a low tree with short-stalked,
    firm, brittle, simple leaves of large size, oval shape, and
    dark green colour. The young leaves are of a bright red
    colour, and, as in many tropical trees, hang limply
    downwards. The flowers are borne on the main stem or the
    older branches, and arise from dormant axillary buds
    (Cauliflory). Each petal is bulged up at the base, narrows
    considerably above this, and ends in an expanded tip. The
    form of the reddish flowers is thus somewhat urn-shaped with
    five radiating points. The pentalocular ovary has numerous
    ovules in each loculus. As the fruit develops, the soft
    tissue of the septa extends between the single seeds; the
    ripe fruit is thus unilocular and many-seeded. The seed-coat
    is filled by the embryo, which has two large, folded, brittle
    cotyledons."

The last sentence conveys an erroneous impression. The two cotyledons,
which form the seed, are not brittle when found in nature in the pod.
They are juicy and fleshy. And it is only after the seed has received