Cocoa plant Theobroma cacao

The scientific name Theobroma cacao was given to the cocoa plant by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, in his famous book Species Plantarum.

This cocoa plant was brought back to London from Jamaica in 1689 by the collector and doctor Hans Sloane. The name Theobroma cacao is from the Greek 'theobroma', meaning drink of the gods.

Linnaeus used the text and drawings from Sloane's collections as the basis for descriptions of this and other species found in his plant catalogue, Species Plantarum (1753). Sloane employed a local artist, the Reverend Garret Moore, to illustrate many of the specimens, but others, such as the cocoa leaf, were drawn by the talented artist Everhardus Kickius on Sloane's return to England (far left).

Sloane saw local people boiling cocoa seeds up to make a drink. When he tasted it, he found it too bitter for his palate and so he added milk and sugar. After Sloane returned to England he sold the recipe. Cadbury reworked the drink and later created the chocolate bar.

Eight of the 265 volumes of Sloane's collections came from Jamaica, each filled with carefully dried and mounted plants. The volumes are still often used by scientists, a powerful record of the biodiversity of the West Indies.

In his long life, the noted physician, scientist and collector Sir Hans Sloane amassed one of the greatest collections of plants, animals, antiquities, coins and many other objects of his time. Sloane's collections are the founding core of the Natural History Museum's collections and occupy a central position in its history.

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