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 

 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. 



Linnseus places the plant among the Pentandria Monogy- 

 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 



