THEOBROMA CACAO. Linn.
Cacao sativus, Lam,. I C. minus, Goren.
The smooth-leaved chocolate-nut tree, a native of Central and South America, now cultivated in several parts of India and the E. Archipelago, and extensively in the West India islands. Its large oval yellow cucumber-like capsules, about 5 inches long, hang from the sides of the trunk and branches. These are divided into 5 cells, each filled with 8 to 10 ovoid seeds, piled one upon another, and covered by a membranous and succulent aril. There are several varieties of these seeds or nibs, which are more or less esteemed. Tho kernels of tho seeds yield by pressure about one-half their weight of a fatty oil, commonly called butter of cacao, at ono time much lauded for its medicinal properties. The seeds, pounded, digested, and boiled with water, with the oil skimmed off, and sweetened with sugar and milk, afford a wholesome and agreeable beverage. A tree in full bearing; is said to yield annually 150 lbs. of seeds. Dried, roasted, and ground, they constitute cocoa ; mixed with starch and finely ground, soluble cocoa. The cocoa as sold in the retail shops, however, consists either of the roasted kernels and husks, or of the husks only, ground to powder ; it is sometimes made from the cake left after expressing the oil from the beans. Much of the cheap stuff sold under this name is very inferior, being made with damaged nuts that have been pressed for the oil, mixed isith potato-flour, mutton suet, etc. Flake
cocoa is cocoa ground, compressed, and flaked by machinery. Chocolate (from the Indian name chocolalt) is made by triturating in a heated mortar the roasted seeds, without the husks, 10 lbs. with an equal quantity of sugar, and about oz. of vanilla and 1 oz. of cinnamon, into a paste, which is put up in various forms. The mass of the common chocolate sold in England is prepared from the cake left after the expression of the oil, and this is frequently mixed with the ro.asted seeds of ground peas and maize, or potato flour, to which a sufficient quantity of inferior brown sugar or treacle and mutton suet is added to make it adhere together. The chocolate-nut tree is seen in Tavoy gardens, and it brings its fruit to perfection. This tree has been introduced into Travancore, where it thrives well ; the fruit is round, but smaller than that produced in South America. It thrives well in the Calcutta Garden. The nutritive properties of chocolate depend on n. concrete oil or butter, of most asfreeable _flavour, of which 1000 parts of the se°ed yield 386. — Drs. Royle, Mason, Riddell, and O'Shauglinessy, p. 227.