346 



RrniACEAE. 



Coffea. Coffee. 

 (Family Rubiaceae). 



Tender shrubs or small irees, 

 more or less deciduous. Twigs 

 rather slender, somewhat flattened 

 or dilated at the nodes: pith 

 roundish, continuous, pale. Buds 

 small, naked, nearly covered by 

 the stipular sheath. Leaf-scars 

 opposite or sometimes in whorls 

 of 3, half-round or half-elliptical, 

 somewhat raised, especially on 

 branches with short internodes: 

 bundle-trace 1, crescent-shaped: 

 stipules united into a sheath about 

 the stem, long persisting. Leaves 

 simple, entire. 



Coffee and tobacco are perhaps 

 the most widely used unessential 

 luxuries derived from the vege- 

 table kingdom. Though it con- 

 tains the active alkaloid caffein, 

 now obtained largely from tea- 

 leaves, it is not commonly conceded by those whose break- 

 fast or dinner would be considered impossible without it that 

 they are seeking the stimulus afforded by coffee, any more 

 than those who follow the meal by tobacco admit that they 

 are in quest of its sedative effect. 

 Glabrous: stipular-sheath 2-pointed. C. arabica. 



