THE SEASON WHY. 311 



"And they returned and prepared spices and ointments ; and rested the 

 Sabbath-day, according to the commandment." LUKE xxiv. 



Into the tropical parts of America; but the fruit is not equal to the banana as 

 an article of human food. 



1224. Coffee (Coffea Arabica). The bush has probably for its native region 

 the Ethiopian Highlands, from whence it was taken in the fifteenth century 

 to the Highlands of Yemen, the southern part of the Arabian peninsula. It 

 has been introduced, and is now extensively cultivated in British India, Java, 

 Ceylon, the Mauritius, Brazil, and the West Indies, but the quality is inferior, 

 which makes the climate of the Mocha coffee district of importance, as 

 peculiarly favourable to the plant. It grows there on hills described by 

 Niebuhr as being soaked with rain every day from the beginning of June to the 

 end of September, which is carefully collected for the purpose of irrigation during 

 the dry season. Forskhal gives the following temperatures in the district : 



\ Boit el Fakih ... March 16, 7 A.M. 76 deg. 1 P.M 95 deg. 10 P.M. 81 deg. 

 18, 77 ,, 95 81 



Hodeida , 18, 72 92f 78 



Bulgosa, a village 

 in the hills ... 20, 69J 854 73 



1225. Tea (Thea Chinensis). The plant is indigenous in China, Japan, and 

 Upper Assam. In the latter country, it has recently been found in a wild state, 

 and is in process there of extensive cultivation. As the plant is hardy, its culture 

 has very lately been attempted in the South of France, and apparently with 

 complete success. A similar experiment on the burning plains of Algeria com- 

 pletely failed, all the plants being killed by the heat, notwithstanding every 

 precaution. Tea was first introduced into Europe by the Dutch in 1666. The 

 leaves of the coffee-plant have long been used as a substitute for tea, by the 

 lower classes in Java and Sumatra ; and recently, Professor Blume, of Leyden, 

 exhibited samples of tea pre pared from coffee-leaves, agreeing entirely in ap- 

 peaiunce, odour, and taste, with the genuine Chinese production. 



1226. Sugar-cane (Saccharum officinaramj, a species of Graminece, occurs to 

 some extent without the tropics, having been cultivated centuries ago in 

 Europe, as at present scantily in the South of Spain. But it properly belongs to 

 the torrid zone, and has for its principal districts, the Southern United States, 

 the West Indies, Venezuela, Brazil, the Mauritius, British India, China, the 

 Sunda and Philippine Islands. The plant was found wild in several parts of 

 America on the discovery of that continent, and occurs in a wild state on many 

 of the islands of the Pacific. 



1227. Vanilla (Vanilla aromatica), the fruit of which forms the well-known 

 aromatic, grows wild principally in Mexico. 



1228. Peruvian bark (Cinchona offidnalis), a forest tree, of which there are 

 several species, furnishing the valuable medicine so called. Tt is exclusively 

 confined to South America, and grows chiefly on the Andes of Loxa and 

 Venezuela. 



1229. Pepper (Piper nigrum) belongs exclusively to the Malabar coast, 

 where it has been found wild, Sumatra, which produces the greatest quantity, 

 Borneo, the Malay peninsula, and Siam. Other species of Piperacecc occur in 

 tropical America. 



1280. Cinnamon (Laurus Cinnamomum), a small tree yielding the aromatic 

 bark, is found native only in the island of Ceylon ; but another species occurs in 

 Cochin China. 



