34 BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND FORM. 



agreeable and stimulating effect of an infusion made 

 from its roasted albumen. 



The common Coffee shrub is an evergreen plant, which, 

 under natural conditions, grows to a height of from 

 eighteen to twenty feet, having the appearance of an 

 upright, slender tree, with main stem very erect, and free 

 from branches for the greater part of its height, but 

 opening at the top into drooping branches, few but long, 

 with an abundance of fine fibrous roots under ground, 

 and an all-important top-root. But in a state of cultiva- 

 tion it is a shrub of close and systematic growth of low- 

 standing, and averaging only from four to six feet in 

 height, its upward growth being checked by the pruning- 

 knife of the cultivator, and also trained by frequent cut- 

 ting and topping so as to assume a pyramidal form for 

 the purpose of increasing the quantity and improving 

 the quality of its product as well as to facilitate the pick- 

 ing of its crop. The branches are bracheate, horizontal, 

 simple and opposite, growing regularly from the ground 

 up, but trailing towards the top, cylindrical in form, 

 flexible, loose and expanding out and downwards like 

 those of the apple tree, and extremely pleasing in general 

 appearance. The leaves are from five to six inches in 

 length, and from two to three wide in the middle 

 when full grown, oblong-ovate, accuminate, smooth, and 

 of a dark, shiny-green color on the upper surface, but pale 

 underneath, firm and leathery in texture, closely resem- 

 bling those of the Portuguese laurel, continuing three 

 years, and possessing slightly tonic and stimulating pro- 

 perties. The flowers, which are produced in dense 

 clusters in the axils of the leaves fitting close to the 

 axils, are funnel-shaped and small but numerous, having 

 a five-toothed calyx, a tubular five-parted corolla^ 

 five stamens and a single bifid style, snow-white in color, 



