The beverage generally called cocoa is merely the berries of Theobroma Cacao, pounded and drank either with water or milk, or with both. Chocolate (of which I shall speak by and bye) is a compound drink, and is manufactured chiefly from the kernels of this plant, whose natural habitat would seem to be Guayaquil, in South America, though it flourishes in great perfection in the West Indies.  It grows also spontaneously and luxuriantly on the banks of the Magdalena, in South America; but the fruit of those trees that are found in the district of Carthagena is preferred to all others, probably from a superior mode of cultivation.  Sir R. Schomburgk, in his expedition into the interior of British Guiana, found the country abounding in cacao, “which the Indians were most anxious to secure, as the pulpy arillus surrounding the seed has an agreeable vinous taste.”  Singular to say, however, they appeared perfectly ignorant of the qualities of the seed, which possesses the most delightful aroma.  Sir Robert adds, they evinced the greatest astonishment when they beheld him and Mr. Goodall collecting these seeds and using them as chocolate, which was the most delicious they had ever tasted.  These indigenous cacao trees were met with in innumerable quantities on the 5th of June, 1843, and the following day; and thus inexhaustible stores of a highly-prized luxury are here reaped solely by the wild hog, the agouti, monkeys, and the rats of the interior.—­(Simmonds’s Col.  Mag. vol. i., p. 41.)

The height of the cacao shrub is generally from eighteen to twenty feet; the leaf is between four and six inches long, and its breadth three or four, very smooth, and terminating in a point like that of the orange tree, but differing from it in color; of a dull green, without gloss, and not so thickly set upon the branches.  The blossom is first white, then reddish, and contains the rudiments of the kernels or berries.  When fully developed, the pericarp or seed-vessel is a pod, which grows not only from the branches, but the stem of the tree, and is from six to seven inches in length, and shaped like a cucumber.  Its color is green when growing, like that of the leaf; but when ripe, is yellow, smooth, clear, and thin.  When arrived at its full growth, and before it is ripe, it is gathered and eaten like any other fruit, the taste being subacid.  If allowed to ripen, the kernels become hard; and, when taken out of the seed-vessel, are preserved in skins, or, more frequently, laid on the vijahua leaves, and placed in the air to dry.  When fully dry, they are put in leathern bags, and sent to market:  this is the Spanish mode of taking in the crop.  A somewhat different method is followed in Trinidad and Jamaica (in the latter island it can scarcely be said to be cultivated now); but it differs in no essential degree from the principle of gradual exsiccation, and protection from moisture.