BOTANY. 305 



men quietly answered, that foreigners always paid a higher price for 

 such teas, and that the manufacturer had no objection to supplying 

 them with it. 



CIIICCORY-COFFEE. 



THE manufacture of a factitious coffee from the roasted root of 

 chiccory appears to have originated in Holland, where it has been 

 practised for more than a century. It remained a secret until 1801, 

 when it was introduced into France. The manufacture of chiccory- 

 coffee in this latter country was for a long time of but little impor- 

 tance, but within a comparatively few years it has extended considera- 

 bly and become an object of commerce of great value ; in fact, 

 12,000,000lbs. are consumed in France, and a large quantity is also 

 yearly exported. Numerous manufactories have also been started in 

 England, which receive their supplies of dry chiccory from the Conti- 

 nent, and to some extent from Ireland. 



The chiccory-plant requires a deep soil of good quality, and well 

 prepared ; the seed is sown in May, and the harvest takes place in 

 October. Some time before collecting the roots, the leaves are 

 mowed, and cows fed with them. They form a most excellent fodder, 

 but when given alone communicate a very disagreeable flavor to the 

 milk of the animals. The roots are dug with a spade, placed in 

 heaps and covered with straw to preserve them from the frost until 

 ready for use. They are afterwards thoroughly dried by a furnace, 

 and cut into strips, in which state they are sold to the manufacturers, 

 who roast them according to the demand. When the roasting, which 

 takes place in large cylinders, is nearly complete, two per cent, of 

 butter is added, in order to impart a lustre to the chiccory. The sub- 

 stance is then ground in a mill, sifted, and a small quantity of reddish 

 coloring material is added to give it the appearance of coffee. The 

 product is then weighed off, and sold in packets under a variety of 

 names, but rarely under its own ; for instance, among others, Mocha 

 powder, ladies' coffee, Chinese coffee, pectoral coffee, colonial coffee, 

 &c. In Holland this chiccory is mixed with coffee in variable pro- 

 portions; the resulting product is very bitter, and is considered by 

 the common people to be a very salutary refreshment, which modifies 

 the stimulant action of the coffee. Such a favorable idea has been 

 formed of it, that of late the chiccory has been employed alone, with- 

 out any addition of coffee; and yet it possesses no other virtue than 

 that of coloring the water in which it is boiled or infused, of commu- 

 nicating to the liquid the bitter taste of the extractive substances con- 

 tained in the chiccory, and of being far less expensive than coffee. The 

 chiccory, notwithstanding, is frequently adulterated with brick-dust, 

 roasted bread, acorns, corn, beet-roots, and carrots. Condensed from 

 the London Chemical Gazette. 



SACCHARINE RICHNESS OF THE SUGAR-CANE. 



M. CASASECAS has communicated to the Paris Academy the result 

 of some important investigations on sugar-cane. One of the facts 



26* 



