338 



C O F 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



C O F 



This account is further and fully confirmed, by trials with 

 berries produced in our English stoves, which make a better 

 flavour than the best Arabian Coffee-berries that can be pro- 

 cured in England. It is no misfortune to the planter that his 

 Coffee is not improved by age, for if it were, it would be 

 extremely difficult for him to keep it so long as is proposed ; 

 which would entirely deprive him of all profit whatever. Ful- 

 ler, however, informs us, that after a multitude of experi- 

 ments, the Jamaica planters have by the most laudable 

 exertions, discovered the art of cultivating, picking, and 

 curing the berries, so as to make their Coffee equal to the 

 growth of Arabia. Some samples are said to have been pro- 

 duced which the London dealers pronounced superior to the 

 best brought from the East. Two of them were equal to the 

 best Mocha Coffee ; and two more superior to any that 

 could be procured at the grocers' shops in London, unless at 

 the price of picked Coffee, which is two shillings per pound 

 more than what they call the best Coffee ; to which the 

 remainder of the samples were little, if at all, inferior. Pro- 

 pagation and Culture. As the Coffee-tree is an evergreen, it 

 makes a beautiful appearance in the stove at every season, 

 but particularly when it is in flower, and also when the berries 

 are red, which is generally in winter ; and as they continue a 

 long time in that state, there is scarcely any plant that better 

 deserves a place in the stove. It is propagated by the ber- 

 ries, which must be sown soon after they are gathered from 

 the trees ; for if not soon afterwards placed in the ground, 

 they will not grow, They should be planted in small pots 

 rilled with light kitchen -garden earth, and plunged into a 

 hot-bed of tanner's bark ; they must be watered gently once 

 or twice a week, but not so as to make the earth too moist, 

 for that would rot the berries. If the bed be of a proper 

 temperature of warmth, the plants will appear in a month or 

 live weeks' time, and in about two months more will be fit 

 to transplant : for as many of the berries will produce two 

 plants, so the sooner they are parted, the better the roots 

 will be formed ; for when they grow double till they have 

 made large roots, they will be so intermixed and entangled, 

 as to render it difficult to separate them without tearing off 

 their fibres, which will greatly prejudice the plants. When 

 they are transplanted, they must be each put into a separate 

 small pot filled with the same earth as before, and plunged 

 into the tan-bed again, which should be stirred up to the 

 bottom, and, if required, have new tan added, to increase or 

 restore the heat. The plants should then be gently watered, 

 and the glasses of the hot-bed must be shaded every day till 

 they have taken fresh root, after which they must have free 

 air daily admitted to them in proportion to the warmth of 

 the season ; and during the summer they will require to be 

 refreshed with water, but it must be given sparingly, for if 

 their roots be kept too moist, they are very subject to rot, 

 which will cause the leaves to decay and drop off, leaving 

 the plants naked, after which they are seldom recovered again. 

 The first sign of the disorder in these plants, is their leaves 

 sweating out a clammy juice, which attracts the small insects 

 that too frequently infest the plants in stoves, when they 

 are not in health ; and these insects cannot be destroyed till 

 the plants are recovered to vigour, for although they be ever 

 so carefully washed and cleaned from them, yet they will 

 soon be attacked again, if not fully restored ; so that upon the 

 first attack, the plants should be shifted into fresh earth, 

 and all possible care taken to recover them. The disorders 

 attending the Coffee-trees generally proceed either from being 

 pat into pots too large for them, nothing being worse than 

 overpotting them, or from the earth being too stiff, or from 

 their being overhung by other plants, or from being over- 



watered. If these things be avoided, and the stove be 

 always kept in a proper temperature, the plants will thrive, 

 and produce plenty of fruit. The plants should not be ton 

 often transplanted, for that will greatly retard the growth ; 

 if they be new-potted twice a year at most, it will be suffi- 

 cient; though, unless they make great progress, they will not 

 require removing more than once a year, which should take 

 place in summer, that they may have time to acquire good 

 root again before winter. This tree has been propagated from 

 layers and from cuttings ; but these are long before they 

 make roots, and the plants so raised are never so strong and 

 thriving as those which arise from berries ; the plants raised 

 from which produce fruit in two years even in our climate, 

 and much sooner in hot countries. In Arabia Felix the 

 Coffee-tree is raised from seeds sown in nurseries, and planted 

 out as there is occasion. The plantation's are in moist shady 

 situations, on small eminences at the foot of the mountains, 

 whence little rills of water are conducted in small chan- 

 nels to the roots of the trees, to secure the production and 

 ripening of the fruit. When they remove or transplant a 

 tree, they make a trench three feet wide, and five feet deep, 

 which they line or cover with stones, that the water may the 

 more readily sink deep into the earth, and be thereby pre- 

 vented from evaporating. When the fruit is nearly ripe, the 

 water is turned off, lest it should become too succulent. In 

 places that are much exposed to the south, the Coffee- trees 

 are planted in regular lines, sheltered by a kind of Poplar- 

 tree, which affords a thick shade. Without these precautions 

 the Arabians suppose that the blossoms would be so parched 

 by the excessive heat of the sun, as not to be succeeded by 

 any fruit. The liquor which we call coffee, or coffea, pre- 

 pared from the berry of this tree, has been drank in* Ethiopia 

 from time immemorial. DuThour recommends the follow- 

 ing method of making this beverage : Pour into a Coffee-pot 

 filled with boiling water, in the proportion of two ounces and 

 a half of the powder, to two English pints of water. Let the 

 mixture be stirred with a spoon, and the Coffee-pot be set on 

 the fire, but soon taken off, and suffered to remain about two 

 hours on the warm ashes, closely shut up ; during this period 

 it should be frequently agitated, and finally left a quarter of 

 an hour to clear. Ceffee thus prepared, he adds, is perfect. 

 The Galla, a wandering nation of Africa, in their incursions 

 on Abyssinia, being obliged to traverse immense deserts, and 

 desirous also of falling upon the Abyssinians unawares ; in 

 order that they may be encumbered with as little baggage as 

 possible, carry nothing with them to eat, but Coffee roasted 

 till it can be pulverized, and then mixed with butter into 

 balls, and put into a leathern bag. One of these, which is 

 about the size of a billiard-ball, keeps them, according to 

 their account, in better health and spirits, during a whole 

 day's fatigue, than a loaf of bread or a meal of meat. The 

 Coffee-tree was introduced into Aden in Arabia, from Persia, 

 by Gemaleddin, only about the middle of the fifteenth cen- 

 tury. Not long after it reached Mecca, Medina, and Grand 

 Cairo, whence it continued its course to Damascus and 

 Aleppo, and in 1554 became known at Constantinople, being 

 introduced there by two persons, one from Damascus, and 

 the other from Aleppo, each of whom opened a public 

 Coffee-house in that city. The first European author who 

 has mentioned Coffee, is llauwolf, who was in the Levant in 

 1573; but the first who has particularly described it, is 

 Prosper Alpinus, in his Medicina /Egyptiorum, 1591, anil 

 in his History of Egyptian Plants, 1592. The use of Cof- 

 fee was known in London soon after the year 165'2, for Mr. 

 Daniel Edwards, a Turkey merchant, brought home with 

 him a Ragusan Greek servant, who understood the roasting 



