The Natural History of Chocolate: Being a Distinct and Particular Account of the Cocoa-Tree, its Growth and Culture, and the Preparation, Excellent Properties, and Medicinal Vertues of its FruitQuélus, D.
Science
The Natural History of Chocolate: Being a Distinct and Particular Account of the Cocoa-Tree, its Growth and Culture, and the Preparation, Excellent Properties, and Medicinal Vertues of its Fruit
Quélus, D.
Cacao -- Early works to 1800; Chocolate -- Early works to 1800
They have transported these great Trees from _St. Domingo_ to the _Vent
Islands_; their Leaves being almost round, are firm and so smooth, that
one would think they had been varnished. Their Fruit are sometimes as
large as one's Head, and their Skins very thick: When that is taken off,
the Pulp is very near the Colour, Smell, and Taste of our Apricocks; in
the Middle there are four Stones as big as Pullets Eggs, which are
difficult to separate from the Fruit. They are eaten with Wine and
Sugar; they make also very good Marmalade.
REMARK III.
The _Calebash_-Tree is nigh as large as the Apple-Tree; it supplies the
Natives and Negroes with Buckets, Pots, Bottles, Dishes, Plates, and
several other Houshold Utensils. One cannot describe the Shape nor
Bigness of _Calebashes_, since there are some of the Size of a Pear, and
others as large as the greatest Citrons; and besides, there are long,
round, oval, and of all Fashions. The Fruit, which is green and smooth
upon the Tree, becomes grey as it dries; within, it is full of a white
Pulp, of no use at all, which they take out through a Hole; the Shells
they put to several Services. The Bark is about one Fifth of an Inch
thick, but very hard, and difficult to break.
REMARK IV.
The _Papaw_-Tree is pretty uncommon as to its Make; its Trunk is strait,
but hollow, and of so tender a Wood, that it is easily cut down with a
Hedging-Bill; it is about four Yards high, without any Branches; its
Leaves much like those of our Fig-Trees, but twice as big, and are
joined to the top by Stalks of a Foot and a half long, and hollow like a
Reed. They being about thirty in number, grow at the top of the Trunk
all round about it; the lowest are ripest and largest, they are green,
and of the bigness of one's Fist. The Pulp, which is but half an Inch
thick, is like that of a Melon, but of a sweet faintish Taste; but it
makes a pretty good Confection, of a fine green Colour.
There is another kind of _Papaw_-Tree, whose Fruit is as large as a
Melon, and better tasted than the former.
REMARK V.
The _Banane_ is a sort of Plant, whose Root is a great round Bulb, from
whence proceeds a Trunk, green and smooth, six Feet high, as thick as
one's Thigh, and without any Leaf. On the top of it grow about twenty
Leaves, about a Foot and a half broad, and about five Feet long; but so
tender, that the Wind tears them from the Middle to the Sides, into
Slangs like Ribbons: From the Center of these Leaves grows a second
Trunk, more firm than the rest of the Plant: upon this grows a Cluster
of about forty or fifty _Bananes_, sometimes more, sometimes less. A
_Banane_ is a Fruit as thick as one's Arm, about a Foot long, and a
little crooked. They gather this Cluster green, and hang it up in the
Ceiling; and as the _Bananes_ grow yellow, or mellow, they gather them.
When this Cluster is taken away, the Plant withers, or they cut it down
at the Root; but for one Trunk lost, the Root sends forth five or six
more.
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