The weekly union record., 1864-03-26
THE UNION RECORD.
THE FOREST.


stated by Sir ]. Emerson to exist in
the island Of Ceylon. 1t is known as
the g Bo- tree" Of Anar-aiapsora, and
is,in all probability,the oldest historical
tree in the world. 1t was planted 2SS
years before Christ, and hence is now
2,l49 years old. Ages varying from
1000 to 1,5o0 years have been assigned
to the baobabs of Senegal, eucalyptus
Of Tasmania, the dragon tree of Grotavo,
and the chestnut of Mount Etna. But
all these estimates are matters Of con-
lecture, and such calculations, however
ingenious, must be purely inferential
whereas the age Of the Bo-tree is a mat
ter of record its conseryancy has been
ali object Of solicitude to successive dy-
nasties, and the story of its vicissitudes
has been preserved in series of con-
tinuous chronicles among the most au-
thentic that have been handed down to
mankind. Compared with it, the Oak
of Ellerslie is but sapling, and the
Conqueror's Oak in Windsor forest,
barely numbers half its years. The
Yew-trees of Fountain Abbey are be-
lieyed to have fourished there twelve
hundred years ago; the olives in the
garden of Gethselnane were full grown
when the Saracens were expelled from
Jerusalem and the sypress of Soma,
in Lombardy, is said to have been
tree in the time of Julius Cesar; yet
the Bo-tree is older than the oldest of
those by century, and would almost
seem to verify the prophecy pronounced
when it was planted, that it would
flourish and be green forever"
Cocoa TREE. The ancient Mex
leans cultivated the cocoa tree, and with
its seeds prepared infusions similar to
the chocolate of modern times. The
use OF cocoa appears to have been intro
duced after the conquest into the other
parts of the continent, nevertheless, the
cocoa tree is indigenous in the hot and
humid forests Of South America. The
Indians still appear to be ignorant of
the profit that may be made of
the seeds of the cocoa tree, they only
eat the pulp of fruit which surrounds
them. Cocoa was introduced into
Europe by the Spaniards, and in no
long space Of time this production of
the New World became the object of a
very considerable traffic.
In the province of Guayaquil, Mex
leo, they plant the beens of the cocoa
directly in Venzuea they prefer raising
the plant in a nursery, which is always
selected of the most fertile soil, and
deeply trcnched. The seeds are sown
Immediately before the setting in of the
rains, and termination takes place in
from eight to ten days. In good soil,
at two years of age the cocoa plant will
have attained height of three feet, it
is then pruned by having two of its up
per branches removed, and is trans
planted.
The tree seldom comes into flower
under thirty months old. Some plan
ters always destroy these first flowers,
and never suffer any fruit to ripen be-
fore the fourth year. There are few
arborescent plants which have so small
flower, and especially flower so dis
proportional to the size of its fruit, as
the cocoa tree. The diameter of bud,
measured at the moment of its expan-
sion is no more than 0,157 of anEnghsh
inch. The flowers appear principally
upon the trunk of the tree itself, they
rarely show themselves beyond the mid
die of the larger branches, occasionally
they appear upon the roots which hap
pen to be above the ground. In the
valley of Del Tuy, in the neighborhood
of Puerto Cabello, the cocoa trees are
set at the distance of about sixteen feet.
Once the cocoa tree is in the plantation,
it is regularly pruned to prevent its
branches becoming too numerous
From the fall of the flower to the COM
plete ripeness of the fruit there elapses
an interval of four months. The fruit
is of an longated form, slightly bent,
and terminated in a point, its length is
about 9 inches, and its greatest dame
ter, which is near the point of attach
ment, is from 6 to I inches, externally,
the cocoa-nut pod is furrowed longitud-
inally. Its color varies from a greenish
white to a reddish violet, the latter be-
ing the more common tint. Internally
the flesh of the fruit is generally white,
although it has sometimes a rose color,
it is sweet and acid, and of very
agreeable flavor. The seeds are gem
orally twenty FIVE in number in each
fruit, and at first are white, they are
oleaginous and slightly bitter, in dry
ing they acquire brown tint. The
cocoa tree appears to yield most abun-
dainty when it is about twelve years of
age. An acre of ground, which in good
plantations will be set with one hundred
and seventy trees, produces in mid
ding year, about 3SS lbs, weight, one
hundred pounds of fresh beans give from