338 



NATURE 



[August 9, 1900 



various tables that have been introduced to facilitate the 

 process and hasten the result. After one or two further 

 applications of spherical trigonometry, we are brought 

 face to face with that curious survival, known as a Lunar 

 Distance, and we are quite sure that the author did some 

 violence to his sense of practical utility when he devoted 

 so many wearisome pages to the consideration of this 

 obsolete problem. In the examination room of the Board 

 of Trade, the thorny difficulties of '•' clearing the dis- 

 tance " may exercise a wholesome effi^ct on the extra 

 master, whose fate it is to attack this problem, and in- 

 duce him to acquire a greater knowledge of nautical 

 astronomy than he would otherwise do ; but we imagine 

 in the great majority of cases the applicant endeavours 

 to forget all about the intricacies of the problem as soon 

 as he is possessed of his qualifying " ticket." The skill 

 of the mechanician has done much to remove the neces- 

 sity of the ingenious device, but the rapid transit of 

 vessels from port to port, and the numerous time signals 

 in known longitudes, give to the mariner Greenwich 

 Time more accurately than it] was ever determined by 

 the method of lunar distances. But for some reason 

 known only to the authorities, an acquaintance with the 

 method is demanded, though the necessary facility in 

 manipulating the sextant cannot so well be required. 

 The whole process affords an interesting case of the 

 resources of analysis outrunning in accuracy the observ- 

 ations to which it is applied. 



" Problems," says Earl Dunraven, " will be given you 

 in the examination room on the infernal subject of 

 magnetism and deviation," so he has much to say about 

 the coefficients A to E. To many, we are afraid these 

 coefficients will remain a matter of intricate manipula- 

 tion, carrying no definite meaning ; but if they follow 

 the author's guidance, they ought to issue triumphantly 

 from the examination ordeal. His rules are admirably 

 arranged, and, from a purely mechanical point of view^ 

 leave nothing to be desired. We could have wished 

 that the theory had been a little fuller, but we remember, 

 a little regretfully, that the author's object is not to 

 teach magnetism, but to pass the reader or student 

 through an examination of a strictly limited character. 

 We cannot but think that the book is eminently calcu- 

 lated to effect this object. Admirably printed, well and 

 lavishly illustrated, furnished with numerous examples 

 and written in a free and easy, but lucid style, we should 

 imagine that this work is destined to become the most 

 popular book on the subject, and that it will be the one 

 guide and text-book to which the young officer will 

 apply, to help him to meet and defy the terrors of Her 

 Majesty's examiners. W, E. P. 



THE CULTIVATION AND PRODUCTION OF 

 COFFEE. 



Le Cafi, Culture — manipulation — production. Par Henri 

 Lecomte, Agrege de 1 Universite, Docteur es Sciences, 

 &c. Pp. vi -h 342. (Paris : Georges Carr^ et C. 

 Naud, 1899.) 



COFFEE in its various commercial aspects, whether 

 from the point of view of the planter, the broker, 

 the retail dealer, or the consumer, has from time to time 

 commanded a great deal of attention. Occupying as it 

 does a large and extended area of cultivation within the 

 NO. 1606, VOL. 62] 



tropics, and being an important branch of industria 

 culture in many of the British possessions, as Jamaica, 

 Ceylon, Southern India, and Borneo, it is but reasonable 

 to expect that treatises on the cultivation, best means of 

 improvement of yield and quality, prevention of disease, 

 &c., would be numerous. In the English language many 

 such works are available, and if this be so, bearing on a 

 culture which though large and important is small in 

 comparison with that of Brazil, Central America, Mexico, 

 Java, and Sumatra, we might also expect to find a large 

 number of books in the languages of the nations to which 

 these extensive coffee growing countries belong. 



The work before us is the latest contribution to the 

 French literature of the subject, and extensive as that 

 literature is and for the most part carefully worked out, 

 M. Lecomte's handbook will be a useful and valuable 

 addition not only for its arrangement, but also for the 

 concise character of the information given and the various 

 items of intelligence regarding production in the several 

 countries referred to and exports therefrom. 



The first chapter is devoted to the early history of the 

 coffee plant. The botany of the genus Cofiea is treated 

 of in the second chapter occupying twenty-five pages, 

 and is illustrated by a figure of the so-called Arabian 

 coffee {Coffea arabica) in flower and in fruit, and a figure 

 is also given of C sienophylla, the tree which furnishes 

 the wild coffee of Sierra Leone, as well as of the new 

 species from the Congo, C. canephora, Pierre. In the 

 enumeration of species given in this chapter thirty- 

 three are referred to, prominence, of course, being given 

 to C. arabica and C. liberica, the two most important 

 coffee yielding species. The best varieties of C. arabica 

 cultivated in various parts of the world are also enumerated. 

 Referring to Coffea stenophylLi the specific name of 

 which, by the way, is spelt with a capital initial letter, the 

 author gives the following interesting account of it : 

 In 1894 some plants of ttiis new species were received at 

 the Royal Gardens, Kew, from Sierra Leone, and these 

 plants produced flowers in 1895. Seeds were afterwards- 

 sent to most of the English colonies where it was thought 

 the plant might flourish. In Ceylon, however, the 

 results have not been satisfactory ; but in Dominica, 

 Jamaica, and Trinidad, the case has been different. 

 In the Botanic Garden of Port of Spain, Trinidad, 

 there are some fine fruiting examples of this tree 

 quite free of disease. The author further regrets 

 that this coffee has not yet been introduced into the 

 French colonies. On the climate and elevation suitable for 

 the success of coffee plantations the great coffee-growing 

 country of Brazil has the first consideration. The re- 

 maining chapters are devoted to the consideration of 

 soils, the choice of seeds, transplanting, manures, shade 

 trees, &c. The use of simple diagrams showing the 

 different positions in which the coffee plant and its 

 shade trees may be placed will be found useful, as will 

 also the list of trees suitable both for shade and shelter, 

 amongst which we notice such well-known trees as 

 Albizzia Lebbek, A. stipulata, and Exythrina indica. 



On the subject of harvesting or gathering the crop it is 

 pointed out how extremely variable in the period of ripen- 

 ing its seeds the plant is in different countries. Thus in 

 Cuba, Guadaloupe, and other islands of the Antilles, the 

 harvest commences in August and is carried on through 



