60 DICOTYLEDONS 



SUB-CLASS 2. — GAMOPETAL/E 



Plants with two floral envelopes : calyx and corolla. Corolla with 

 united petals, the stamens generally inserted on it. 



14. The Coffee Family 



(Rubiaceae). 



Trees, shrubs, or herbs with opposite simple leaves and inter- 

 petiolar stipules. Flowers radial. Corolla tubular, four or five lobed; 

 stamens, as many, inserted on the corolla (epipetalous). Ovary inferior, 

 of two syncarpous carpels. Fruit a drupe, or a capsule, or a berry. 

 Seeds endospermous. 



The Coffee Tree (Coffea arabica). 



(Plate No. 633.) 

 {Kan. Kaplii. ^\al. Bimnu. Tarn., Tel. Kapi.) 



1. Cott'ee is the seed of a small tree, cultivated in India, 

 but a native of Arabia. Under cultivation the shrub is generally 

 not allowed to grow more than six or eight feet liigb, but if left 

 to itself would become a small tree. 



The Leaves are oblong and pointed, the margins being slightly 

 waved. They are placed opposite one another, and in such a 

 way that every pair stands crosswise over the next lower pair 

 [decussate). So also the many branches Avhich are wiry and 

 spreading horizontally. This ensures the advantage of the stem 

 being equally loaded. The surface of the leaves is smooth and 

 shining, a property which prevents too rapid an evaporation of 

 the sap in the leaves (cf. Mango tree, page 25). Observe also 

 the stipules between the petioles of the opposite leaves on either 

 side: they coalesce into one and are termed "interpetiolar". 



2. Tlie pretty white and rose-tinted Flowers stand in little 

 cymose clusters (fascicles) in the axils of the opposite leaves nnd 

 have a most delicious fragrance. Calyx small. Petals gaiuo- 

 petalous, funnel-shaped with a short tube and four to seven or 

 nine oblong •lo])es, twisted in bud. Stamens as many as i)etals, 

 with lanceolate anthers attached in the middle ol' their back 

 (dorsifixed) to the short filaments which are inserted at the mouth 



