Naturalisation in Extra- Tropical Countries. 123 



Cocos Vatay, Martins. 



Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguay and Argentina. Forms distinct 

 forests mainly with C. australis and C. Datil (Drude). The last 

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

 kernels of the nuts of C. Yatay are edible. The leaves, like 

 those of many other palms, serve for the manufacture of hats. 

 The incomparably valuable strictly tropical Cocoanut-palm, Cocos 

 nucifera (Linne), has fruited at the verge of the tropic in Queens- 

 land at Bockhampton under the care of Mr. J. S. Edgar. 



Coffea Arabica, Linne.* 



The Coffee-plant. Mountains of South- Western Abyssinia* 

 extending as indigenous according to Welwitsch and Peters to 

 Mozambique and Guinea. A shrub or small tree. The cultivation 

 within extra-tropical boundaries can only be tried with any prospect 

 of success in the warmest and at the same time moistest regions, 

 frost being detrimental to the Coffee-plant; it fruits however still 

 occasionally, though scantily, at Port Jackson, but gives good 

 results already in the northern part of New South Wales, the 

 Mocha- variety being best adapted for the more temperate regions 

 [Turner.] 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 of from 3,000 to 4,500 feet, in 

 places where there is a rainfall of about 100 inches a year. The 

 temperature there hardly ever rises 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 extraordinarily prolific 

 variety of Coffee was introduced thirty years age 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 

 many particulars see the papers of the Planters' Association of 

 Kandy. Chemical principles of Coffee : caffein, a peculiar tannic 

 acid and quinic acid. The importations of Coffee into the United 

 Kingdom in 1884 amounted to 1,134,000 cwt. (almost^ one-quarter 

 being for home consumption), valued at 3| million pounds sterling. 

 The import of Coffee into Great Britain during 1886 was 1,006,165 

 cwt., valued at 3,295,028, about a quarter of which came from 

 British India. 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 reaching 

 15,000,000 [Abbay]. The destruction of this Coffee-leaf fungus 

 (Hemileia vastatrix) is to some extent effected by applying flowers 

 of sulphur, particularly in dewy weather, and by dressing the 

 ground with quicklime [Morris]. Still more powerfully acts a 

 weak solution of sulphate of copper mixed with lime. The un- 

 pruned plants are less subject to the Hemileia. Mr. J. Storck, of 

 Rewa, Fiji, found the vapours from a 5-10 per cent, aqueous 

 solution of carbolic acid to be an effectual remedy against the 



