IN EXTRA-TROPICAL COUNTRIES. 



85 



Cocos Romanzoffiana, Chamisso. 



Extra-tropic Brazil. This noble Palm attains to a height of 40 

 feet. 



Cocos Yatay, Martius.* 



Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguay and Argentina. Forms mainly 

 with C. Australis and C. Datil, distinct forests (Drude). The last 

 mentioned bears date-like fruits, according to Dr. Lorentz. 



Coffea Arabica, Linne. 



Mountains of South- West Abyssinia. The Coffee Plant. This 

 shrub or small tree has been admitted into this list, not without 

 great hesitation, merely not to be passed. The cultivation within 

 extra-tropical boundaries can only with any prospect of success be 

 tried in the warmest and simultaneously moistest regions, frost 

 being detrimental to the coffee plant. In Ceylon the coffee regions 

 are between 1,000 and 5,000 feet above the ocean, but Dr. Thwaites 

 observes that the plant succeeds best at an elevation from 3,000 to 

 4,500 feet, in places where there is a rainfall of about 100 inches a 

 year. The temperature there rises hardly ever above 80 F., and 

 almost never sinks below 45 F. Coffee requires moist weather 

 whilst it ripens its fruit, and a season of drier weather to form its 

 wood. Average yield in Ceylon 4 to 5 cwt. per acre. An extra- 

 ordinarily prolific variety of coffee was introduced twenty years ago by 

 the writer of this work into Fiji, where it now forms the main 

 plantations. The Coffee plant has been found hardy as far north 

 as Florida. For further particulars see the papers of the Planters' 

 Association of Kandy. Chemical principles : coffein, a peculiar 

 tannic acid and quinic acid. The loss sustained in 1878 alone by 

 the ravages of parasitic fungus growth on coffee plants in Ceylon 

 amounted to ,2,000,000, the total loss since 1869 from this source 

 to 15,000,000 (Abbay). The destruction of the Coffee-leaf 

 Fungus (Hemileia vastatrix) is effected by applying flour of sulphur, 

 particularly in dewy weather, and by dressing the ground with 

 quicklime (Morris). See also essay by Mr. T. Dyer in Journal 

 of Microsc. Soc. new series, vol. XX. In America coffee plantations 

 have suffered not only from the attacks of erysiphoid fungi, but also 

 the Cemiostoma Fly. Coffee leaves have recently come into use 

 as tea. 



Coffea Liberica, Bull. 



The Liberian Coffee plant, distinguished already by Afzelius. 

 According to Dr. Imray this species has shown immunity from the 

 Cemiostoma Fly, and it is less affected by the Hemileia mould. 

 It grows to the size of a real tree, is a rich bearer, and the berries 

 are larger than those of the ordinary coffee bush ; but the (useless) 



