Great confusion exists in the popular mind in respect to _Cocoa_, _Cacao_, and _Coca_, which are very generally confounded with each other, although differing as widely as almost any three products which it is possible to mention. _Cocoa_ is the name given to a species of palm, producing the _cocoa-nut_, which is too well known to need description. _Cacao_, the fruit of the cacao-tree, (_Theobroma cacao_,) described in the text. This fruit is described in the scientific books “as a large coriaceous capsule, having nearly the form of a cucumber, from the seeds of which the buttery and slightly bitter substance called cacao, or chocolate, is prepared.” _Coca_ is the name given to a shrub, (_Erythroxylon coca_,) which grows on the eastern declivities of the Andes of Peru and Bolivia; and is, to the natives of those countries, what opium and betel are to those of Southern Asia. Its leaves, which are chewed by the Indians, have such an effect in allaying hunger and thirst, that those who use them can subsist several days without any other nourishment. The shrub grows about six feet in height, with bright green leaves and white blossoms. When the leaves are ripe, that is to say, when they crack on being bent, they are gathered and dried. They are chewed or eaten with a little unslacked] lime, to give them a relish. When constantly used, they produce some of the deleterious effects of opium. Footnote 9: After giving expression to his enthusiasm on the subject of Cacao, Gage becomes philosophical, and discourses thus lucidly upon what, in these transcendental days, would be called “the dual nature, harmoniously blended,” of this wonderful product: “Cacao, although a Simple, contains the Quality of the four Elements; yet it is held to be cold and dry, _à prædominio_. It is also in the substance that rules these two Qualities, restringent and obstructive, of the Nature of the Element of the Earth. And as it is thus a mixed and not a Simple Element, it hath parts correspondent to the rest of the Elements; and particularly it partakes of those which correspond with the Element of Air,—that is, heat and moisture, which are governed by unctuous parts; there being drawn out of the cacao much Butter, which I have often seen drawn out of it by the Criolian women to oint their faces. * * And this is very conformable to reason, if we consider that every Element, be it never so simple, begets and produceth in the liver four Humors, not only differing in temper but substance; and begets more or less of that Humor, according as the Element hath more or fewer parts corresponding to the substance of that humor which is most ingendered.”—_A New Survey of the West Indies_, p. 239. -----