Catesby, Mark. Appendix Pl. 6, The Cacao Tree

Mark Catesby (1638 - 1749)Etching with hand color, paper dimensions: approximately 19 x 14 inchesFrom the Appendix (Part 11) to Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, Florida & the Bahama IslandsLondon: 1747 - 1771 Currently known as the cacao, Theobroma cacao*, Catesby described this subjects as follows:   CACAO ARBOR.  The Cacao Tree. The trunks of these trees are about eight inches thick, and twelve foot in height, with afliining smooth bark. The leaves grow alternately, are broad and pointed, set on flat pedicles near an inch long. The flowers put forth only from the trunk and larger branches, in clusters of about eight or ten ; each flower consisting of five capsular leaves, and five petals, with stamina and a slilus. From one of these little tufts of blossoms usually succeeds a single fruit about the bigness of a Swan's egg, but longer, more tapering, and ending in a point. The fruit hangs pendant, and, when ripe, has a shell of a purple colour, in substance somewhat like tha