Page:Cacao by Dahlgren, B. E. (Bror Eric).djvu/16

8 time on the tree. It produces its flowers and fruits in a curious manner peculiar to certain members of the tropical forest flora. The smaller branches and terminal twigs support the foliage only, while the inconspicuous yellow and purple flowers spring in clusters from points on the bark of the trunk and of the larger branches. It has been suggested in explanation, that this arrangement facilitates the finding of the flowers by low-flying insects that visit and pollinate them. They do not have to search for the small blossoms among a crowded mass of foliage on top, but can find them readily on the bare trunk near the forest floor. However that may be, the fruiting tree presents a striking appearance. While very young, the fruits look like miniature green cucumbers sharply pointed at both ends; as they enlarge and mature, they become great "pods", five to seven, or even ten inches long, with longitudinal grooves alternating with ribs on the surface. They acquire a texture recalling that of a thin-skinned squash, and a color varying from a lemon or ochre yellow to a deep red. Hanging singly or in small bunches around the slim trunk of the tree, they scarcely look as if they had grown, but rather as if they had been accidentally or purposely hung there. The pods are picked when ripe and gathered into piles. The workers on the plantation then sit down to break the outer casing which is of no further value, in order to secure the contained seeds, the cacao beans, which furnish the chocolate. In a well-filled pod there may be fifty of these, usually there are not so many, all attached to a central core and covered with a white, slippery and soft, mucilaginous pulp, of a pleasant acid taste. This layer is removed or is completely destroyed in the process of sweating or fermentation to which the beans are subjected for some days before they are dried for the market. For this purpose they are piled into heaps which are turned occasionally. The [ 32 ]