THE COFFEE PLANT 



Distribu- 

 tion. 



COFFEA 



ARABICA 



Species and Varieties 



Le Cafe, 1684 ; Spon, Tract, de Potu Caphe, 1684 ; Blankaart, Coffee, 1686 ; Nichol 

 de Blegny, L'Emploi du Cafe, 1687 ; Galand, UOrigine et Progres du Cafe, 

 1699 ; Chardin, Voy., 1686 (Engl. ed.), 1811, ii., 279 ; Ray, Hist. PI., 1688, ii., 

 1691 ; Petrus Petitus, Homeri Nepenthes, 1689, 73 ; Sloane, Phil. Trans. 

 London, 1693 (ed. 1809), iii., 623 ; Pomet, Hist. Gen. des Drogues, 1694, i., 204 ; 

 Bruce, Travels, 1790, ii., 226 ; Macpherson, Comm. with Ind., 1812, 271 ; Milburn, 

 Or. Comm., 1813, i., 104-6; ii., 530; Law, Hist. Coffee, 1850; Thurber, Coffee, 

 Plantation to Cup, 1881 ; De Candolle, Orig. Cult. Plants, 1884, 415-8 ; Van Delden 

 Lserne, Coffee Cult. Brazil and Java, 1885 ; Nicholls, Textbook Trap. Agri., 1892, 

 91-109 ; Pharmacog. Ind., ii., 215-25 ; Elliot, Gold, Sport and Coffee in Mysore, 

 1894; Ferguson, Coffee PI. Manual, 1894; Jardin, LeCafeier et le Cafe, 1895; 

 Burton, First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894, i., 12 n., 55 n. ; ii., 26 ; Heuze, Les PI. 

 Indust., 1895, iv., 172 ; Semler, Trop. Agrik., 1897, i., 218-24, 233, 260 ; Laborie, 

 Coffee Planter St. Domingo, 1898 ; Lecomte, Le Cafe, 1899; also in "La Geographic," 

 June 1901; Sadebeck, Die Kulturgew. der Deut. Kolon., 1899, 137-8, 142-5; Morren, 

 Kaffeeplantage in Der Tropenpflanzer, Beihefte, March and May, 1900 ; Mukerji, 

 Handbook Ind. Agri., 1901, 456-62 ; Lehmann, Coffee Cultivation, Dept. Agri. 

 Mysore Bull., No. 2 ; Jumelle, Les Cult. Colon. (Aliment.), 1901, 350-85; Wiesner, 

 Die Rohst. dea Pflanzenr., 1903, i., 483.] 



Distribution. The world's supply of coffee, we are thus justified in be- 

 lieving, came originally from Arabia and Abyssinia, but as the demand 

 increased new localities of production were established. The Dutch East 

 India Company pioneered the modern trade by their experimental cultiva- 

 tion in Batavia. Soon thereafter coffee cultivation was successfully intro- 

 duced into the warm temperate areas (or hilly tracts) of most tropical 

 countries, and in time these not only produced far more than the ancestral 

 regions, but yielded a supply of an even superior quality. Improvements 

 in quantity and quality, of necessity rapidly extended consumption until 

 they made coffee one of the most popular of all beverages, and hence with 

 a large number of the inhabitants of the globe it passed from the position 

 of an occasional luxury to that of a daily necessity, rivalled only by tea 

 the sister beverage of the breakfast table. 



Species and Varieties Cultivated. After the somewhat detailed 

 account already furnished of the chief historic facts regarding the Abys- 

 sinian (commonly called the Arabian) coffee plant, it is perhaps hardly 

 necessary to indicate that particular species any further for the 

 present. It is to this day by far the most important cultivated stock, 

 though its liability to blight has caused planters to seek out other 

 forms, in the hope of being able either to replace Coffea arabica or to 

 use these as strains in hybridisation or as stocks upon which to graft, in 

 the production of blight-proof plants. In this modern aspect of the 

 coffee-planting industry three plants have attracted special attention. 

 These are : 



(a) C. liber ica, Hiern / a native of West Tropical Africa (Liberia, Angola, 

 Golungo, Alto, etc.). But in its indigenous area it is very indifferently cultivated, 

 at most in but small plots along the banks of the rivers. In trade it is called 

 Liberian or Abeokuta Coffee. Sir J. D. Hooker from 1872 advocated in the Kew 

 Reports the cultivation of this plant it was then being experimentally grown 

 at Kew ; Ferguson published a History of its introduction, progress and 

 cultivation in Ceylon up to 1878 ; Thurber, I.e. 107-16 ; Kew Bull., 1890, 107, 

 245-53 ; 1892, 277-82 ; 1893, 25, 204-6 ; 1895, 12, 273-4, 296-9 ; 1897, 

 314 ; Progress Rept. Bot. Gard. Nilgiri Hills, 1881-2 ; Christy, New Comm. 

 PL, 1878, i., 1-7 ; Laerne, I.e. 321 ; Trinidad Bull., 1894, 267-73 ; Watson, 

 Cult. Tavoy, 1893; Rept. Govt. Bot. Gard. Bangalore, 1897-8, 11; Vankeirsbilck,#et>. 

 Agri., 1896, x., 135-7, 162; U.S. Yearbook Agri. Dept., 1897, 197 ; Huettenbach, 

 Cult. Liberian Coffee, in Selangor Journ., 1897 ; Der Tropenpflanzer, 1897, i., 

 290-6 ; iii., 231 ; Journ. Soc. Arts, 1897, 541 ; 1903, 461 ; Cat. des PI. Econ. 

 in L'Horti. Colon., 1900, 63-4 ; Edmond Bordage, Revue Agri. de la Reunion, 

 1901 ; UAgri. Prat, des Pays Chauds, 1902, ii., 169, 624 ; Sadebeck, I.e. 145 ; 



368 



Species and 

 Varieties. 



Liberian. 



Chief 

 Publications. 



