THE PERUVIAN BARK FAMILY. 243 



are found to yield extracts varying in quality; and possibly sys- 

 tematic cross-fertilisation or grafting might be the means of 

 improving or augmenting the valuable principles secreted by 

 these plants. 



Coffea. The most useful and interesting plant in this genus 

 is C. arabica, from the two-seeded berries of which coffee is 

 prepared by roasting and grinding. This plant is a native of 

 Abyssinia, whence it was long ago introduced to Arabia by the 

 Arabs, and cultivated in Yemen ; and for two centuries Arabia 

 supplied all the coffee in commerce. About the end of the 

 seventeenth century the Dutch succeeded in transporting it to 

 Batavia, whence a solitary plant found its 'way to the Botanic 

 Garden at Amsterdam, and in 1714 a plant was given to 

 Louis XIV. It is a disputed point whether the French or 

 the Dutch first introduced it to the western hemisphere. 

 One account says the French introduced the culture of this 

 plant into Martinique in 1717, while another historian asserts 

 that the Dutch had previously taken it to Surinam. In either 

 case, it is certain that we are indebted to the progeny of the 

 solitary specimen which had been propagated from the Amster- 

 dam garden for all the coffee now brought from Brazil and the 

 W. Indies. This is, however, only one instance in which in- 

 telligent propagation in our botanic gardens at home has bene- 

 fited the colonies to an almost incredible extent. Kew has 

 been the intermediate resting-place for most of the Cinchona 

 plants introduced by that indefatigable traveller, Mr R. Cross, 

 from Peru to India ; while in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden 

 the Ipecacuanha plant ( Cephaelis] has been increased for ex- 

 port to India in a very intelligent manner ; and at the time I 

 write, Mr Bull has a fine batch of seedlings of Liberian coffee, 

 which has a larger berry, and is said to be otherwise superior 

 to the ordinary kind. Coffee is readily propagated by sowing 

 the seeds or berries in a genial bottom -heat of 7o-8o. 

 Cuttings will root in a close case, but not so quickly as if 

 grafted on thick bits of root well furnished with fibres at the 

 lower end. Wherever this shrub is largely grown, seed is the 

 method generally adopted. 



Gardenia (Cape Jasmine). A favourite genus of West 

 Indian and African flowering stove - shrubs, represented in 

 our gardens by G. radicans, G. florida, G. intermedia, G. 

 Stanleyana, G. citriodora, and one or two others, the double- 

 flowered .forms of G. radicans and G. florida being most 

 generally grown for the sake of their pure-white deliciously- 

 perfumed flowers. All the species are readily propagated by 

 cuttings of the ripened wood, or by herbaceous cuttings in 



