ceeded by the five true Leaves of the same
Colour, which fill up the empty Spaces or Partitions of the _Calix_.
These Leaves have two Parts, the undermost of which is like an oblong
Cup, striped with Purple; on the inside, it bends towards the Center by
the help of a _Stamen_, which serves to fasten it; from this proceeds
outwardly, the other Part of the Leaf, which seems to be separate from
it, and is formed like the End of a Pike.

The Heart is composed of five Threads and five _Stamina_, with the
_Pistilla_ in the middle. The Threads are strait, and of a purple
Colour, and placed over-against the Intervals of the Leaves. The
_Stamina_ are white, and bend outwardly with a kind of a Button on the
top, which insinuates itself into the middle of each Leaf to sustain
itself.

When one looks at these small Objects through a Microscope, one is ready
to say, That the Point of the Threads is like Silver, and that the
_Stamina_ are Chrystal; as well as the _Pistilla_, which Nature seems to
have placed in the Center, either to be the _Primitiae_ of the young
Fruit, or to serve to defend it, if it be true that this Embryo unfolds
itself, and is produced in no other place but the Base.

For want of observing these small Parts, as well as the Bulk of the
Blossom, _F. Plumier_ had no distinct Knowledge of them, nor has he
exactly design'd them, any more than _Mons. Tournefort_, who has done
them after his Draught[b].

The _Cocao-Tree_ almost all the Year bears Fruit of all Ages, which
ripen successively, but never grow on the end of little Branches, as our
Fruits in _Europe_ do, but along the Trunk and the chief Boughs, which
is not rare in these Countries, where several Trees do the like; such as
the [1]_Cocoeiers_, the [2]_Apricots_ of St. _Domingo_, the
[3]_Calebashes_, the [4]_Papaws_, &c.

Such an unusual Appearance would seem strange in the Eyes of
_Europeans_, who had never seen any thing of that kind; but if one
examines the Matter a little, the philosophical Reason of this
Disposition is very obvious. One may easily apprehend, that if Nature
had placed such bulky Fruit at the Ends of the Branches, their great
Weight must necessarily break them, and the Fruit would fall before it
came to Maturity.

The Fruit of the _Cocao-Tree_ is contained in a Husk or Shell, which
from an exceeding small Beginning, attains, in the space of four Months,
to the Bigness and Shape of a Cucumber; the lower End is sharp and
furrow'd len