COFFEE. 251 



of the ordinary coffee, it assumes the character of a small tree 

 much more distinctly than any other of the better known 

 varieties. Its first branches and leaves are few and gross, 

 becoming smaller and more numerous and dense with age. 

 These peculiarities indicate that a system of rather wide 

 planting must be resorted to, and such treatment in pruning 

 as will induce a lateral development, viz., topping the leaders 

 permanently at seven feet, and the leading branches first at 

 three feet from the stem, and subsequently at one and two 

 feet at subsequent toppings, when the growth does not promise 

 to be sufficiently dense/'' Mr. Prestoe recommends planting 

 at a distance of sixteen feet, and interlocating the common 

 Creole coffee; these intermediate to be removed at a later 

 j)eriod, when the ground will have become completely covered. 



"The narrow-leaved, from the Java Botanic Gardens, 

 probably quite as new to western cultivation as the Liberian. 



"A species eminently adapted for cultivation in poor, 

 rocky, or gravelly soils. Resist droughts that would prove 

 fatal to the ordinary Creole coffee ; remarkably prolific, the 

 size of beans only second to that of the Liberian. 



" The foliage is remarkable from being spare and drooping, 

 the leaf being much longer, but only one quarter the width 

 of an ordinary Creole coffee leaf, and of very leathery texture. 

 It is adapted for resisting the attacks of fungoid and insect 

 blight to which the moka and common coffees seem becoming 

 more and more liable. 



" Sou/Here Coffee." — This coffee has been so named from 

 the district in which it was found growing in Dominica. 

 I My attention/' says Mr. Prestoe, " was attracted from a 

 distance to trees of this kind in the Soufriere hills by their 

 uniform fruitfulness and health, whilst being surrounded by 

 trees of Creole and moka coffee, all more or less affected with 

 blight, and impoverished by drought and barren soil. On examin- 

 ing the trees, I found they were quite distinct from any other 

 variety I had yet seen, in the general sturdiness of habit, 

 distinctly pendulous branch, deep green of the foliage, and 

 the leathery texture of leaf. Moreover, the trees were evidently 

 proof against insect attacks. The size of the bean of this 

 variety is unusually large, nearly equalling that of the 

 narrow-leaved coffee. 



