Coffee 



181 



observed that such plants suffered less from the attacks of parasites, than those which had 

 not been grafted, especially from those parasites — such as nematode worms — which frequently 

 attack the roots of the Arabian coffee plant but do not usually attack Liberian coffee. By 

 grafting we thus obtain the advantage of the hardy root system of Liberian whilst the produce 

 from the grafted stems is the more highly esteemed Arabian coffee. 



The famous Buitenzorg Botanic Gardens, near Batavia, where experiments are made 

 with all kinds of tropical plants, furnished the first seeds of Liberian coffee to the planters 

 of Java in 1878. Since that time the cultivation of this kind of coffee has so rapidly 

 progressed, that at present one-tenth of the State plantations are planted with- shrubs of this 

 sort, and one-fourth of the private plantations also. 



NURSERY OF COFFEE SEEDLINGS UNDER THE SHADE OF TREES 



Other Varieties of Coffee 



Over and above the two chief kinds of coffee — -Arabian and Liberian — which are described 

 above, the following varieties deserve mention, on account of some peculiar characteristics. 

 The Hybrico-coffee of Brazil already mentioned, with its fruits containing four or six instead of 

 two seeds. The Maragogipe, found in 1870 near the town of the same name of the Brazilian 

 province of Bahia. The leaves of this kind are as large as those of the Liberian coffee, and 

 the seeds are so much in request that people have tried to grow it elsewhere, but accounts 

 vary very much as to its yield. The Botucatu (var. amarilla), discovered in the year 1871 

 in the district of the same name in the province of San Paolo, which the English have introduced 

 into India under the name of " golden drop coffee," but of which the cultivation is not very 

 important. 



Experiments have been, and are still continually being made, with numerous varieties in the 

 hope of finding a sort fit for cultivation. These experiments are conducted in various parts of 

 the world with the wild Congo coffee (Coffea robusta), and in the Botanic Gardens of Ceylon, 

 Trinidad, and elsewhere, with the Sierra Leone coffee (Coffea stenophylla), the beans of which 

 are said to be superior in flavour to those of all other coffees. Another species of coffee {Coffea 



