AND GENEKAL HORTICULTURE. 



95 



COF 



French "West Indies were established, and 

 whence were also derived all the coffee plants 

 in Mexico and South America. The use of 

 coffee was known in Arabia, where the plant 

 is supposed to have been indigenous, long 

 before the periods mentioned. All authorities 

 agree in ascribing its introduction to Megal- 

 leddin, a Turkish doctor of divinity, of Aden, in 

 Arabia Felix, who had become acquainted 

 with it in Persia, and had recourse to it 

 medicinally when he returned to his own 

 country. The progress which it made was by 

 no means rapid at first, and it was not until 

 the year 1554 that coffee was publicly sold in 

 Constantinople. Its use had, in the mean- 

 while, been much checked by authority of the 

 Syrian government, on the ground of its 

 alleged intoxicating qualities ; but more prob- 

 ably because of its leading to social and fes- 

 tive meetings incompatible with the strictness 

 of the Mahommedan discipline. A similar 

 persecution attended the use of coffee soon 

 after its introduction into the capital of Tur- 

 key, where the ministers of religion, having 

 made it the subject of solemn complaint that 

 the mosques were deserted while the coffee- 

 houses were crowded, these latter were shut 

 up by order of the mufti, who emploj^ed the 

 police of the city to prevent any one from 

 drinking coffee. This provision it was found 

 impossible to establish, so that the govern- 

 ment, with a strict eye to business, laid a tax 

 upon the sale of the beverage, which produced 

 a large revenue. The Turks are most invet- 

 erate coffee-drinkers, a fact that may in a 

 great measure be accounted for by the strict 

 prohibition which the Moslem religion lays 

 against the use of wine and spirituous liquors. 

 So necessaiy was coffee at one time considered 

 among the Turks, that the refusal to supply it 

 in moderate quantities to a wife was reckoned 

 among the legal causes for divorce. Coffee 

 cannot be cultivated to advantage in a cli- 

 mate where the temperature at any time 

 descends below fifty-five degrees of Fahren- 

 heit. The trees thrive best in new soils on a 

 gentle slope, where water will not lodge 

 about the roots. In exposed situations it is 

 necessary to plant rows of tall tx'ees, at proper 

 intervals, to moderate the scorching heat of 

 the sun. From Ellis' History of Coffee we 

 learn the following facts : " It is well known 

 that coffee raised in the West Indies does not 

 equal in flavor that produced in Arabia and 

 other parts of the East ; and it is commonly 

 imagined that this inferiority is principally 

 owing to local causes, and is, therefore, inca- 

 pable of being remedied. The seed of the West 

 Indian coffee, from growing in a richer soil 

 and more humid atmosphere, is larger than 

 that of Arabia; though there is reason for 

 believing that the superior quality of Turkey 

 and East Indian coffee is not altoget her to be 

 referred to the influences of soil aiid climate, 

 but depends, in part at least, upon the age 

 to which the seeds are kept before they are 

 brought into consumption. Trees planted in 

 a light soil, and in a diy situation, produce 

 smaller berries, which have a better flavor 

 than those grown in rich, flat, and moist soils. 

 The weight of produce yielded by the latter is, 

 however, double that obtained from the for- 

 mer. The drier the soil and the warmer the 

 situation, the better will be the coffee pro- 

 duced, and the sooner it will acquire a flavor." 



COL 



He says further: *'The more common or 

 poorest quality of South American coffee will, 

 in the course of ten or fifteen years, be as 

 good, and have as high a flavor, as the best 

 we now have from Turkey; but due care 

 should be taken to keep it in a dry place, and 

 to preserve it properly. Small-grained coffee, 

 produced in a dry soil and warm situation, 

 will be matured in three years. The trees 

 begin bearing when they are two years old ; 

 in their third year they are in their full bear- 

 ing. The produce of a good tree is from one 

 and a half to two pounds. The aspect of a 

 coffee plantation during the period of flower- 

 ing is very interesting. In one night the 

 blossoms expand so profusely as to give the 

 trees the appearance of being covered with 

 snow. This period lasts but one or two days." 

 The amount of labor required to secure a crop 

 of coffee is very great, and is chiefly performed 

 by negroes. When the trees are in full bear- 

 ing, an industrious man will pick three bushels 

 of berries in a day, and each bushel of ripe 

 berries will yield ten pounds of merchantable 

 coffee. Two systems are employed in curing 

 coffee : A common plan is to expose the ber- 

 ries to the sun in layers of from five to six 

 inches deep, which will cause the pulp to fer- 

 ment in a few days, after which it takes about 

 three weeks to dry sufficiently for the husks 

 to be separated from the seeds by a mill. 

 Other planters remove the pulp as soon as 

 gathered, by a mill constructed for the pur- 

 pose, which bruises the berries and separates 

 the pulp by washing, after which it is dried in 

 the sun, and the husks removed, as in the for- 

 mer process. 



Cohering. Connected. 



Cohosh. A popular name for Actcea spicata. 



Cohosh. Blue. A name applied to Caulopkyllum 

 thalictroides. 



Coix. Job's Tears. A name applied by Theo- 

 phrastus to a reed-leaved plant. Nat. Ord. 

 Graminacea. 



A genus of perennial grasses that succeed 

 well under ordinary cultivation in the garden. 

 C. lachryma, a native of the East Indies, from 

 whence introduced in 1596, will do well treated 

 as an annual. It is considerably grown for its 

 seeds, which ai'e popularly known as Job's 

 Tears. Mothers, in the last century, thought 

 their children could not be safely carried 

 through teething without a string of Job's 

 Tears around their necks. 



Cola. The native name. Nat. Ord. SterculiacecB. 

 C. acuminata, the only cultivated species, 

 was introduced from tropical Africa in 1868, 

 under the name of Cola, Kola or Goora nuts. 

 The seeds of this tree are imiversally used as 

 a condiment by the natives of western and cen- 

 tral tropical Africa, and likewise by the negroes 

 in the West Indies and Brazil, by whom the tree 

 has been introduced into those countries. 

 They are also used in medicine, and to render 

 putrid water wholesome. At the present writ- 

 ing (1889) much intei'est is exhibited in this nut 

 as an ingredient in a new condensed form of 

 rations for military purposes, combining, it 

 is claimed, two special advantages of great 

 importance. First, its bulk and weight being 

 very much less than those of ordinary rations, 

 it is much more easy to carry on a forced 

 march, thus relieving the marching force of 



