Coffea Arabica. 



the more strongly-constituted new arrival may 

 gradually with advantage supersede the older 

 species altogether. 



Experiments of this kind are always interesting 

 in themselves, and worth trying, both from a 

 commercial and scientific point of view. 



The C. Arabica is a native of Caffa, a district 

 of Southern Abyssinia, whence it was introduced 

 about the beginning of the fifteenth century into 

 Yemen, a province of Arabia, formerly known as 

 Arabia Felix. It is said, however, to have been 

 known long previously in Persia. The plant is 

 also believed to be indigenous in the West of 

 Africa, in the same parallel of latitude. It seems 

 also a question whether it may not be indigenous 

 in Peru ; at any rate, a writer, from whom I shall 

 quote later, 1 informs us it was known in that 

 country long before the cultivation of the plant 

 was begun in Brazil or the West Indies. The 

 plant is stated to have been first introduced to the 

 notice of Europeans by Rauwolfius, who brought 

 some specimens to Western Europe in 1573, but 

 Alpinus has the credit of having first scientifically 

 described it in 1591. Others state that it is to the 

 Dutch that Europeans are indebted for their first 

 acquaintance with the coffee plant, and that this 

 was brought about in the following manner : 

 1 Mr W. Branson's paper, read before the Society of Arts. 



