<br/"> Tags appearing in textarea output

I have an input form with two text boxes that allows the user to enter words separated by commas in each.

<form action="http://www.example.com/output.php" method="post">
<table border="0">
<tr>
<td>
<h3 class="title">Prefix</h3>
<textarea cols="34" rows="8" name="cat[]"></textarea></td>
<td>
<h3 class="title">Suffix</h3>
<textarea cols="34" rows="8" name="cat[]"></textarea></td>
</tr>
</table>

Enter words separated by a comma. 

<input type="submit" value="Go" /> </form> 

      

        
        
        
      

    

It then passes them into an output form that explodes the words from commas and then concatenates them together until all possible word permutations have been created. Then it outputs the results to a text box. My problem is that the output (while correctly formatted and has line breaks between each permutation) has a br tag at the end of each line. For instance.

testtest2<br />
testtest2<br />
testtest4<br />
testetest2<br />
testetest2<br />
testetest4<br />

      

        
        
        
      

    

Withdrawal form:   

$cat = $_POST['cat']; //trait set for textbox inputs
foreach(array_keys($cat) as $key){
$cat[$key] = explode(",", str_replace(' ','',$cat[$key]));
}    

function showCombinations($string, $traits, $i)
{
if ($i >= count($traits))
echo trim($string)."\n";  
else
{
foreach ($traits[$i] as $trait)
showCombinations("$string$trait", $traits, $i + 1);
}
}
?>

<form name=form1 method=post action=''''>
<textarea><?php ShowCombinations('', $cat, 0); ?></textarea>
</form>

      

        
        
        
      

    

• When I remove the textarea tags for output, it works fine.
• When I leave the textarea tags and remove / replace echo trim ($ string). "\ n"; with "\ r" or "n" or "\ n \ r"
  disappears, but I also lose linebreak
• Replace echo correction ($ string). "\ n"; with echo nl2br ($ string); then the same result as 2.
• Replace with echo nl2br ($ string). "\ n"; then the same result as 1.

Would be grateful for any help. My noob brain is about to explode.