Theobroma
(from theos, god, and broma, food; referring to the well-known produce of the seeds of T. Cacao). SYN. Cacao. ORD. Sterculiaceae. A small genus (about half-a-dozen species) of stove trees, inhabiting the warmer parts of America. Flowers rather small; calyx five-cleft or five-parted; petals five, cucullate-concave and contracted into a claw at base, produced above into a spathulate hood; stamens opposite the sepals; peduncles axillary or lateral, one-flowered and fascicled or race-mosely many-flowered. Fruit often large, drupaceous, with a woody, five-celled stone; seeds enveloped with pulp. Leaves ample, oblong, undivided, penninerved or three to five-nerved at base. To dilate on the immense economic value of the seeds of T. Cacao would be beyond the scope of this work. It may be remarked, in passing, that the annual European consumption of Cacao seeds, in the form of chocolate, &c., is estimated at nearly 40,000,000lb., the Spaniards being the largest consumers. T. Cacao will thrive under the same treatment as that recommended for Ticorea. T. Cacao. Cacao or Cocoa Plant; Chocolate Nut Tree. fl. fascicled; calyx rose-coloured, the segments lanceolate, acuminate, exceeding the yellowish corolla. May. fr. yellow or reddish, ovoid-oblong, 6in. to 8in. long, containing fifty to a hundred seeds. l. oblong, acuminate, glabrous, quite entire. h. 16ft. to 18ft. Trinidad, &c., 1739. (L. B. C. 545.)