40 CULTIVATION OF COFFEE IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 



upon the other. These seeds are of a horny or cartilaginous 

 nature ; they are glued together, each being surrounded with a 

 peculiar coriaceous membrane. The period of flowering does 

 not last more than two days. In a single night the blossoms 

 expand so profusely that the trees appear as if covered with 

 snow. The seeds are known to be ripe when the berries have 

 a dark red color. 



Travellers and planters tell us that nothing can be conceived 

 more delightful than the appearance and perfume of a coffee 

 plantation in full bloom. The air is filled with fragrance, and 

 the trees appear as if a shower of snow had just fallen on their 

 dark-green glossy leaves, which are almost entirely hidden by 

 the profusion of delicate white blossoms. This rare beauty is, 

 however, but short-lived, for the splendid array of the morn- 

 ing may, perchance, fade away with the heats of noon, or 

 the mellowing tints of even. 



Prof. Baird, speaking of a plantation in the "\Vest Indies, says : 

 "Anything in the way of cultivation more beautiful or more fra- 

 grant than a coffee plantation I had not conceived : and oft did 

 I say to myself that if ever I became, from health or otherwise, 

 a cultivator of the soil within the tropics, I would cultivate the 

 coffee-plant, even though I did so irrespective altogether of the 

 profits that might be derived from so doing. Much has been 

 written, and not without justice, of the rich fragrance of an 

 orange-grove : and at home we ofttimes hear of the sweet odors 



O o 7 



of a bean-field. I too have often enjoyed, in the Carse of 

 Stirling and elsewhere in Scotland, the balmy breezes as they 

 swept over the latter, particularly when the sun had burst out 

 with unusual strength after a shower of rain. I have likewise 

 in Martinique, Santa Cruz, Jamaica, and Cuba inhaled the gales 

 wafted from the orangeries ; but not for a moment would I 

 compare either with the exquisite aromatic odors from a coffee 

 plantation in full blow, when the hill-side, quite covered over 



