70 THE USES OF PLANTS. 



Berk, and Broome, and now its cultivation is mainly 

 superseded in the island by that of the tea.* Similarly 

 a small moth, Cemiostoma coffeellum, Mann, has by 

 its ravages almost entirely destroyed the plantations 

 in Dominica. The bulk of our coffee supply now 

 comes from Central America. Coffea arabica, L., has 

 been to some extent replaced by the more robust 

 LIBERIAN COFFEE (Coffea liberica, Bull and Hiern) 

 introduced in 1876, the ' beans ' of which are imported 

 as 'best Java.'f Another large-leaved variety has 

 been recently discovered, under the name 'Mara- 

 gogipe,' in Brazil. J 



Of Cocoa we imported in 1886 14^ million pounds 

 for home consumption. 



KOLA-NUTS, the seeds of Cola acuminata^ R. Br., a 

 native of West Tropical Africa, belonging to the 

 Sterculiacea, the same Natural Order as the Cacao, 

 were first brought into notice as a new source of 

 Caffeine about i865. It is the Stercnlia acuminata 

 of P. Beauvois (Flore d'Oware), and is known as the 

 Guru-nut in the Western Soudan, where it is highly 

 valued. It is used to clear and sweeten muddy water, 

 to assist digestion and to allay hunger. In 1882 MM. 

 Heckel and Schlagdenhauffen showed that it contained 

 theobromine and glucose, three times as much starch 

 as Cacao-beans, and more caffeine in a free state than 



* In 1877, 1,175 lb. f tea were exported ; in 1885, over 3! 

 million. 



t 'Journ. Lin. Soc.' (Botany), 1876; ' Pharm. Journ.,' vii 

 (1877), P- 574- I n Ceylon, G. A. Cruewell, Colombo, 1878, 8vo. 

 In West Indies, N. A. Nicholls, London, 1881, 8vo. Christy : 

 ' Commercial Plants,' No. I. 



% Christy : ' Commercial Plants,' No. 7, p. 79. 



' Pharm. Journ.,' vi (1865), pp. 450 and 457, by Prof. Attfield. 



