218 RUBIACEZ. 
Charlotte Elizabeth from Marly to her step-sister in Germany : 
~**T am grieved to learn, dear Louise, that you have taken to 
coffee ; nothing is so unhealthy, and I see many here who have 
had to give it up because of the diseases it has brought upon : 
them. The princess of Hanan died of it in frightful sufferings. __ 
After her death they found the coffee in her stomach, where 
it had caused several ulcers. Let this then be a warning 
to you.” 
Coffee is cultivated by the Arabs in the lower valleys of the 
mountains of Yemen, the plant is watered regularly morning 
and evening, and takes three years to arrive at maturity, when 
it forms a shrub from 7 to 11 feet in height. A good bush of 
Oudanee coffee produces 28 Ibs. yearly. The beans are 
brought in December and January to Sanaa, from the sur-_ 
rounding districts. They are divided into seven classes, a8 
sherjee, the best ; oudanee, the largest, &c. From Sanaa they 
are carried to Mocha and Hodeida. The people of Sanaa never 
use the coffee bean, but employ the husk, which they call 
'“ Khishr,” and which is prepared in the same manner; they 
say that the bean is too heating, but that kishr is an infal- — 
lible remedy for all disorders. (0. J. Cruttenden, Trans. Bom. 
Geograph Soc. ti., 45, 1836.) Cruttenden notices the difficulty 
experienced by the merchants in forwarding their coffee to 
ocha, owing to the Turks having taken possession of the 
Tehama, and shortly afterwards we find that the trade was to — 
a great extent transferred to Aden, 
The Dutch were the first European people to grow the 
plant at the end of the 17th century at Batavia from Arabian — 
seeds. In 1690 one of these was sent to Witsen at Amsterdam, — 
and the plant soon became known in European gardens. The 
Dutch also imported the plant into the New World, the first 
coffee being grown at Surinam in 17 18, whence in 1725 it was 
secretly carried to Cayenne by the French. Its introduction 
into the West Indies appears to be due to a French naval — 
officer, who in 1720 or 1723 brought the plant to Martinique. — 
At the present time coffee is cultivated in nearly all. tropical : 
and subtropical countries. The berries of some other species 
Me 
ee Sir ay be copes ei 
Waste tee "= bier ie ta bas?) o—- x8 
