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INSTITUTE OF JAMAICA. 



ON A NEW BEVERAGE SUBSTANCE. THE KOLA 

 NUT, A PRODUCT OF JAMAICA. 



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In this Lecture I propose to bring under your notice 

 some account of the Kola-nut, the seed of a tree growing in 

 this island. It will-be my^ aim to show that we have in this 

 product a new resource *of great value and importance. I 

 shall endeavour to point out the great intrinsic value of the 

 kola-nut on account of its medicinal qualities, and more par- 

 ticularly on account of its adaptability to take a place by the 

 side of coffee and chocolate as a beverage-substance, par- 



_ taking as it does of the qualities of both these staple articles 



of our agriculture and commerce. I shall also notice the 



- horticultural capabilities of the kola as a hardy tree of easy 



\\ culture and as adapted to be grown extensively on large areas 

 of unoccupied and otherwise unprofitable lands in Jamaica. 

 Here, then, is a prospect full of interest and promise, which, 

 if it can only be realised, will shed a ray of hope and be as a 

 silver lining behind the cloud of agricultural depression that 

 is still weighing so heavily on the sugar-planting and other 

 rural interests in this island. It will be shown in the course 

 of the remarks that this new beverage-substance may be pro- 

 duced on lands that are now of but little profit for sugar. The 

 addition to our agricultural resources of a cultivation which, 

 in all probability, is destined to take rank with that of coffee, 

 whilst not demanding so much labour in its picking and pre- 

 paration as the coffee-berry does, and which promises to be 

 easier than and quite as profitable as that of cacao, and yet 

 capable of greater extension than chocolate, because the kola 

 is a hardier plant and more adapted to a variety of soils and 

 climate than is the very delicate theobroma or chocolate, such 

 an addition to our resources, I may say, cannot be regarded 

 as unimportant; and I am confident that you will lend Pie 

 your attention even whilst I am occupied with some of the 



"C drier details of the subject. 



The earliest accounts of the kola tree are contained in 

 the reports of African travellers. The nut is known to have 

 been in use amongst the natives of Western Africa and the 

 Soudan for various purposes from early times. In Western 

 Africa it is used to render the half-putrid water of pools 

 > agreeable to drink by infusing into it some powdered kola- 

 nut, whereby it is cleared and rendered palatable and re- 

 freshing. The medicinal uses of kola seed by the natives of 

 -^Qca have not escaped the notice of travellers. It is said 



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