CULTIVATION OF COFFEE IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 39 



consisting of many species of tropical berry-bearing shrubs, 

 one of which, Coffcea Arabica, the only one which is 

 cultivated, is a native of Upper Ethiopia and Arabia 

 Felix. This is the parent of the plant from whose crushed 

 berries we derive that delightful aromatic drink called cof 

 fee. This albuminous substance the coffee of commerce 

 is to that plant what the flour is to corn, the white 

 meat to a cocoa-nut, and the aromatic ruminated substance 

 to the nutmeg;. It is a secretion formed in the interior 



o 



of the seed, and enveloping the embryo plant, for whose 

 support it is destined when it first begins to germinate ; it 

 constitutes the principal part of the seed, the embryo being 

 itself a minute body lying in a cavity at one end of the al 

 bumen. 



Linnaeus places the plant among the Pentandria, ]\onogy- 

 nia / its flower consists of one funnel-shaped petal, with a 

 slender tube, nearly cylindrical, much longer than the flower- 

 cup. It is described botanically as an ever-green shrub in its 

 native state, having oval, shining, sharp-pointed leaves, white, 

 fragrant, five-cleft clustered corollas, with projecting anthers, 

 and oblong pulpy berries, which are at first of a bright red 

 color, but afterwards become purple. The dark-green, leaves, 

 shining brilliantly in the sun, afford a beautiful contrast to the 

 pure white, jessamine-like blossoms that cluster and nestle 

 among the foliage ; which ever and anon turns fitfully up with 

 the breeze its white under-lining, and glitters like the foam- 

 crest on the ocean wave. Its leaves resemble those of the 

 common laurel, although not so dry and thick. From the 

 angle of the leaf -stalks small groups of the white flowers issue, 

 which, as already stated, resemble those of the jessamine. These 

 flowers fade very soon, and are replaced by a kind of fruit not 

 unlike a cherry, which contains a yellow fluid enveloping two 

 small seeds or berries, convex upon one side, flat and furrowed 



