126 



COFFEE. 



80. Other monopeta'leae with epigy'nous corollae, have the 

 anthers distinct, and form the class named Corisanthe'rece, which 

 is divided into several families, among which are the CAPRI- 

 FOLIA'CE^E, of which the honeysuckle is the type, and the 

 RUBIA'CE.E, a group in which we find the coffee, Peruvian bark, 

 and ipecacuanha, &c. 



81. The Coffee tree (figure 

 155) appears to be originally 

 from Ethiopia, whence it was 

 carried by the Arabians to dif- 

 ferent parts of Arabia, but par- 

 ticularly to the province of 

 Yemen, and especially to the 

 environs of Mocha. Towards 

 the close of the seventeenth 

 century, the Dutch carried it to 

 Batavia, and about 1710, one 

 of these precious plants was 

 sent from this colony to Am- 

 sterdam ; it was carefully culti- 

 vated in the botanical garden, 

 and soon produced fruit, the 

 seeds of which furnished the 

 means of its rapid multiplica- 

 tion, for one of these young 

 trees thus obtained, having been 

 sent to Louis XIV., flourished in 

 the garden of plants, near Paris, 

 and afforded the French govern- 

 ment the means of introducing its cultivation into Martinique ; it 

 soon spread through the West Indies, and Brazil, &c. The trunk 

 of the coffee tree is cylindrical, and rises to from fifteen to twenty 

 feet high ; its branches are somewhat knotty ; its leaves are 

 lanceolate, shining, and of a deep green ; its flowers are white 

 and almost sessile; and its fruit is fleshy, ovoid berries, which are 

 at first green, then red, and finally black ; each berry encloses 

 two fleshy nuts, each containing a seed convex outwardly and 

 flat within, and marked on the flat side by a longitudinal groove. 

 This shrub ordinarily flowers twice a year, but there is scarcely 

 an interval between these periods, so that it is always loaded 

 with flowers and fruit ; the latter generally ripens four months 

 after inflorescence, and must be gathered with care according to 

 its state of maturity. 



Fig. 155. COFFEE. 



80. To what class do the families Capri folia' cess and Rubia'ceso belong ? 



81. What are the characters of the coffee tree ? Where does it grow ? 



