THE COFFEE FAMILY 



61 



of the floral tube between the corolla-lobes- Ovary inferior with 

 two one-seeded cells and one bitid style. 



3. Fruit a two-seeded drupe (commonly, but erroneously, 



called berry) with a blood-red fleshy exocarp 

 crowned by the persistent calyx, and a hard 

 parchment-like (coriaceous) endocarp envelop- 

 ing each seed 

 (Plate No. 



633,5,6,7,8). 



The seeds 

 are flat on 

 their inner 

 side with a 

 deep inward- 

 1 y curved 

 groove (9, 10). 

 Crush one of 

 the seeds, 

 sold in the 

 bazaar as 

 coffee-beans, 

 and you will 

 find that the 

 folds consist 

 of a horny 

 mass and 



Fig. 64. — The Coffee tree. that at One 



end of the 

 seed enveloped by the folds there is a minute embryo. The folded 

 substance, then, is the endosperm of the seed. 



4. Cultivation.— The Coffee plant requires a well drained rich 

 soil, such as is found in hilly forests. It grows best in a humid 

 climate, and frost is fatal to it. In hot and dry places Coffee is 

 successfully grown in shade. The plants are reared from seed in 

 a nursery and, when a year or two old, planted in their permanent 

 places in the plantation generally under partial shade. As shade- 

 trees, such are preferred as go to enrich the soil, e. g., Bauhinia, 



