Another great enemy of the Ceylon planters is the _Lecanium Coffeæ_, a species of _coccus_, which establishes itself on young shoots and buds, covering them with a noisome incrustation of scales, from the influence of which the fruit shrivels and drops off. A great part of the crop is sometimes lost, and on many trees not a single berry forms from the invasion of this insect plague. [Illustration: THE COFFEE RAT.] Theobroma,--food for gods,--the Greek name given by Linnæus to the cacao or chocolate tree, sufficiently proves how highly he valued the flavour of its seeds. Indigenous in Mexico, it had long been in extensive cultivation before the arrival of the Spaniards, who found the beverage which the Indians prepared from its beans so agreeable that they reckoned it among the most pleasing fruits of their conquest, and lost no time in making their European friends acquainted with its use. From Mexico they transplanted it into their other dependencies, so that in America its present range of cultivation extends from 20° N. lat. to Guayaquil and Bahia. It has even been introduced into Africa and Asia, in return for the many useful trees that have been imported from the Old into the New World. The cacao-tree seldom rises above the height of twenty feet; its leaves are large, oblong, and pointed. The flowers, which are of a pale red colour, grow on the stem and larger branches, and spring even from the roots. ‘Never,’ says Humboldt, ‘shall I forget the deep impression made upon me by the luxuriance of tropical vegetation on first, seeing a cacao-plantation. After a damp night, large blossoms of the theobroma issue from the root at a considerable distance from the trunk, emerging from the deep black mould. A more striking example of the expansive powers of life can hardly be met with in organic nature.’ The fruits are large, oval, pointed pods, about five or six inches long, and containing in five compartments from twenty to forty beans. The trees are raised from seed, generally in places screened from the wind. As they are incapable of bearing the scorching rays of the sun, particularly when young, bananas, maize, manioc, and other broad-leaved plants are sown between their rows, under whose shade they enjoy the damp and sultry heat which is indispensable to their growth, for the Theobroma Cacao is essentially tropical, and requires a warmer climate than the coffee-tree or the sugar-cane.