Page:Cacao by Dahlgren, B. E. (Bror Eric).djvu/15

Rh without opposition. Its introduction into Prussia was prohibited by Frederic the Great. The Parisian physician Bachot, however, in a thesis to the faculty of medicine, praised the cacao as one of the most noble of discoveries, far more worthy to be the food of the gods than are nectar and ambrosia.

When Linnaeus sat down to straighten out the confusion of terminology existing in the herbals, and to confer unmistakable and distinctive names on all the animals and plants of which he could learn and could muster a definite description, he coined a name for the chocolate tree, from two Greek words, (θεός) theos, god and (βρῶμα) broma, food—Theobroma, "food for the gods". This remains the scientific name for Cacao trees in general.

The particular kind or species of Cacao trees which furnishes the beans of commerce was designated as Theobroma Cacao. Other species of Theobroma also furnish nourishing food or drink to a lesser extent but are less valuable or less amenable to cultivation. There are about a dozen of these. The best known of them is the Tiger Cacao, or "Pataste", Theobroma bicolor, of Colombia and Rio Negro, a much larger and taller tree than the Cacao tree proper. The famous cacao of Soconusco is said to be the product of Theobroma angustifolia, and the cacao of Esmeralda of still another species. The beans of an inferior kind were used in Mexico as alms for the poor. The rest, all natives of tropical America, are of some local importance and the fruit of several is gathered in Brazil where they grow wild. Some of them may be adaptable for stock or for grafting, as recent experiments would indicate.

The cultivated Cacao is a small shade-loving tree, which is usually kept down in plantations to about the size of a peach tree, but grows much more rapidly and bears large simple leaves which remain a long