The Natural History of Chocolate/Part I/Chapter I

The Description of the Cocao-Tree.

The Cocao-Tree is moderately tall and thick, and either thrives, or not, according to the Quality of the Soil wherein it grows: Upon the Coast of Caraqua, for instance, it grows considerably larger than in the Islands belonging to the French.

Its Wood is porous, and very light; the Bark is pretty firm, and of the Colour of Cinnamon, more or less dark, according to the Age of the Tree. The Leaves are about nine Inches long, and four in breadth, where they are broadest; for they grow less towards the two Extremities, where they terminate in a point: their Colour is a little darkish, but more bright above than underneath; they are joined to Stalks three Inches long, and the tenth part of an Inch broad. This Stalk, as it enters the Leaf, makes a strait Rib, a little raised along the Middle, which grows proportionably less the nearer it comes to the End. From each side of this Rib proceed thirteen or fourteen crooked Threads alternately.

As these Leaves only fall off successively, and in proportion as others grow again, this Tree never appears naked: It is always flourishing, but more especially so towards the two Solstices, than in the other Seasons.

The Blossoms, which are regular and like a Rose, but very small, and without smell, proceed from the Places from which the old Leaves fall, as it were in Bunches. A large Quantity of these fall off, for hardly Ten of a Thousand come to good, insomuch that the Earth underneath seems cover'd over with them.

Every Blossom is joined to the Tree by a slender Stalk half an Inch or a little more in length; when it is yet in the Bud, it is one Fifth of an Inch broad, and about one fourth or a little more in length: when it was least, in proportion to the Tree and the Fruit, the more strange it appeared to me, and more worthy of Attention.

When the Buds begin to blow, one may consider the Calix, the Foliage, and the Heart of the Blossom. The Calix is formed of the Cover of the Bud, divided into five Parts, or Leaves, of a very pale flesh-colour. These are succeeded by the five true Leaves of the same Colour, which fill up the empty Spaces or Partitions of the Calix. These Leaves have two Parts, the undermost of which is like an oblong Cup, striped with Purple; on the inside, it bends towards the Center by the help of a Stamen, which serves to fasten it; from this proceeds outwardly, the other Part of the Leaf, which seems to be separate from it, and is formed like the End of a Pike.

The Heart is composed of five Threads and five Stamina, with the Pistilla in the middle. The Threads are strait, and of a purple Colour, and placed over-against the Intervals of the Leaves. The Stamina are white, and bend outwardly with a kind of a Button on the top, which insinuates itself into the middle of each Leaf to sustain itself.

When one looks at these small Objects through a Microscope, one is ready to say, That the Point of the Threads is like Silver, and that the Stamina are Chrystal; as well as the Pistilla, which Nature seems to have placed in the Center, either to be the Primitiæ of the young Fruit, or to serve to defend it, if it be true that this Embryo unfolds itself, and is produced in no other place but the Base.

For want of observing these small Parts, as well as the Bulk of the Blossom, F. Plumier had no distinct Knowledge of them, nor has he exactly design'd them, any more than ''Mons. Tournefort'', who has done them after his Draught.

The Cocao-Tree almost all the Year bears Fruit of all Ages, which ripen successively, but never grow on the end of little Branches, as our Fruits in Europe do, but along the Trunk and the chief Boughs, which is not rare in these Countries, where several Trees do the like; such as the Cocoeiers, the Apricots of St. Domingo, the Calebashes, the Papaws, &c.

Such an unusual Appearance would seem strange in the Eyes of Europeans, who had never seen any thing of that kind; but if one examines the Matter a little, the philosophical Reason of this Disposition is very obvious. One may easily apprehend, that if Nature had placed such bulky Fruit at the Ends of the Branches, their great Weight must necessarily break them, and the Fruit would fall before it came to Maturity.

The Fruit of the Cocao-Tree is contained in a Husk or Shell, which from an exceeding small Beginning, attains, in the space of four Months, to the Bigness and Shape of a Cucumber; the lower End is sharp and furrow'd length-ways like a Melon.

This Shell in the first Months is either red or white, or a Mixture of red and yellow: This Variety of Colours makes three sorts of Cocao-Trees, which have nothing else to distinguish them but this, which I do not think sufficient to make in reality three different kinds of Cocao-Nuts.

The First is of a dark vinous Red, chiefly on the sides, which becomes more bright and pale as the Fruit ripens.

The Second, which is the White, or rather is at first of so pale a Green, that it may be mistaken for White; by little and little it assumes a Citron Colour, which still growing deeper and deeper, at length becomes entirely yellow.

The Third, which is Red and Yellow mix'd together, unites the Properties of the other two; for as they grow ripe, the Red becomes pale, and the Yellow grows more deep.

I have observed that the white Shells are thicker and shorter than the other, especially on the side towards the Tree, and that these sorts of Trees commonly bear most.

If one cleaves one of these Shells length-ways, it will appear almost half an Inch thick, and its Capacity full of Chocolate Kernels; the Intervals of which, before they are ripe, are fill'd with a hard white Substance, which at length turns into a Mucilage of a very grateful Acidity: For this reason, it is common for People to take some of the Kernels with their Covers, and hold them in their Mouths, which is mighty refreshing, and proper to quench Thirst. But they take heed of biting them, because the Films of the Kernels are extreamly bitter.

When one nicely examines the inward Structure of these Shells, and anatomizes, as it were, all their Parts; one shall find that the Fibres of the Stalk of the Fruit passing through the Shell, are divided into five Branches; that each of these Branches is subdivided into several Filaments, every one of which terminates at the larger End of these Kernels, and all together resemble a Bunch of Grapes, containing from twenty to thirty-five single ones, or more, ranged and placed in an admirable Order.

I cannot help observing here, what Inconsistency there is in the Accounts concerning the Number of Kernels in each Shell. Dampier, for instance, says there is commonly near a Hundred; other Moderns 60, 70 or 80, ranged like the Seeds of a Pomgranate. Thomas Gage, 30 or 40; Colmenero 10 or 12; and Oexmelin 10 or 12, to 14.

I can affirm, after a thousand Tryals, that I never found more nor less than twenty-five. Perhaps if one was to seek out the largest Shells in the most fruitful Soil, and growing on the most flourishing Trees, one might find forty Kernels; but as it is not likely one should ever meet with more, so, on the other hand, it is not probable one should ever find less than fifteen, except they are abortive, or the Fruit of a Tree worn out with Age in a barren Soil, or without Culture.

When one takes off the Film that covers one of the Kernels, the Substance of it appears; which is tender, smooth, and inclining to a violet Colour, and is seemingly divided into several Lobes, tho' in reality they are but two; but very irregular, and difficult to be disengaged from each other, which we shall explain more clearly in speaking of its Vegetation. Oexmelin and several others have imagined, that a Cocao-Kernel was composed of five or six Parts sticking fast together; Father Plumier himself fell into this Error, and has led others into it. If the Kernel be cut in two length-ways, one finds at the Extremity of the great end, a kind of a longish Grain, one fifth of an Inch long, and one fourth Part as broad, which is the Germ, or first Rudiments of the Plant; but in European Kernels this Part is placed at the other end.

One may even see in France this Irregularity of the Lobes, and also the Germ in the Kernels that are roasted and cleaned to make Chocolate.