The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-11-27
cAcAo, COCA, COCO AND COCOA.


A Clearing Up of Singular Confusion of
Names.
A striking example Of the ignorance of
tropical things on the part of dwellers in
temperate regions is to be found in the
confusion into which the articles various
ly termed cacao, coca, coco, cocoa, have
been got by shippers, tradesmen, dction-
tionary and encyclopedia makers, and tho
public following them. There are four
widely separated vegetable growths that
are variously mixed under these names.
The first, cacao, is well placed in tho
genus theobroma, name given it by Lin
heus, and signifying food for the gods"
The specific name comes from the Portu-
guese "cacau," " in turn derived from the
ancient Mexican "cacautl." Its name il
almost universally spelled cocoa in the
United States and England and confused
with the coooanut of the palm tribe, with
which it has far less natural affinity than
has the rose with the pear All the die
tionaries confuse or misapply these names.
Even the Encyclopedia Britannica talks
Of the cocoa tree, and, though admitting
that it is "more properly cacao, " says un-
der that heading "see cocoa" Worcester's
school dictionary actually says, Cocoa,
beverage made of the cocoanut, which
Is quite as accurate as il would he to de-
fine gooseberry pie as a product of the as
paragls plant.
The cacao il small evergreen tree from
Is to 80 feet high under cultivation and
higher in its native forests. Though u
native of America, from Mexico to Peru,
it was introduced into Africa over 200
years ago, where il has since escaped from
cultivation and may now be found grow
ing wild. Its somewhat egg shaped pods
are from to l2 inches long, with "A thick,
almost woody rind. Ten elevated outside
ridges indicate five celled fruit. This con
tains from 25 to 100 seeds, imbedded in
the sweetish pulp These are the "cacao
beans" from which are prepared seed. The
tree must have plenty Of heat and rain, a
deep, rich soil and but little wind. The
best cacao is that of Venezuela-Caracas
cacao.
The cacao pods are gathered twice a
year, in June and December. Roasted and
divested of husks, the pods become "cacao
nibs;' ground into paste, sweetened and
favored, they yield chocolate; in a crude,
unsweetened paste, cacao, enormously call
ed COCO, with the oil extracted, dried and
powdered, "broma," and the oil of the
seed yields n nonrancid fat, "cacao but
ter" much used in pharmacy.
The second of our quartet, coca, often
incorrectly spelled cuca, is "A shrub closely
resembling blackthorn and native Of the
Andes, attaining six or eight feet in height,
with straight branches and brilliant green
leaves. The latter, when ehewed, produce
"a sense Of warmth in the mouth, having a
pleasant, pungent taste.
OF coco much less can be said than of
the others. So little is it known in north
ern countries that the dictionaries and en-
cyclopedias, with one exception, ignore 1t.
1t yields a root which, properly cooked,
IL not unlike sweet potato, and which
have found palatable and very nourshing.
1t is not of sufficient value however, to
come into general use where either pota-
toes, breadfruit or plantains abound.
The last Of our quartet, the cocoanut
palm, is the most widely distributed OF
tropical growths and without exception
the most useful of any single one Of ma
lures products-save earth, air and water
The cocoanut palm, which the Ency-
clopedia Britannica enormously thinks
should be called coconut, grows from 4C
to ITO feet high and Is sometimes feet
In diameter The trunk is exceedingly
elastic. Ihave seen trees as feet high bend
in hurricane till their tops touched the
ground and then right themselves unin-
jured, n moment after. The leaf, some
times over 20 feet long, has midrib bor-
dered by many long leaflets, the whole re-
| sembling "A mammoth feather. The nuts
grow in lunches of 10 to 90, are ~ to Is
inches long aud 3 to in diameter.
Francisco Chronicle