PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SEEDS. 41/ 



town sent a flourisliing plant covered with fruit to Louis 

 XIV., who placed it in his garden at Marly. Coffee 

 was also grown in the hothouses of the king's garden 

 ^ in Paris. One of the professors of this establishment, 

 Antoine de Jussieu, had already published in 1713, in 

 the Memoires de VAcademie des Sciences, an interesting- 

 description of the plant from one which Pancras, director 

 of the Botanical Garden at Amsterdam, had sent to him. 

 The first coffee plants grown in America were intro- 

 duced into Surinam by the Dutch in 1718. The Governor 

 of Cayenne, de la Motte-Aigron, having been at Suri- 

 nam, obtained some plants in secret and multiplied them 

 in 1725.^ The coffee plant was introduced into Mar- 

 tinique by de Clieu,^ a naval officer, in 1720, according 

 to Deleuze f in 1723, according to the Notices StcUistiques 

 SUV les Colonies Fvanqaises,^ Thence it was introduced 

 into the other French islands, into Guadaloupe, for in- 

 stance, in ]730.^ Sir Nicholas Law^es first grew it in 

 Jamaica.^ From 1718 the French East India Companj^ 

 had sent plants of Mocha coffee to Bourbon ;'^ others say ^ 

 that it was even in 1717 that a certain Dufougerais- 

 Grenier had coffee plants brought from Mocha into this 

 island. It is known how the cultivation of this shrub 

 has been extended in Java, Ceylon, the West Indies, and 

 Brazil. Nothing prevents it from spreading in nearly 

 all tropical countries, especially as the coffee plant thrives 



* This detail is borrowed from Ellis, Diss. Caf., p. IG. In the KoHces 

 Sfatistiqiies siir les Colonies Franraises (ii. p. 46) I find : "About 171G or 

 1721, fresh seeds of the coffee having been brought secretly from 

 Surinam, in spite of the precautions of the Dutch, the cultivation of 

 this colonial product became naturalized at Cayenne." 



* The name of this sailor has been spelt in several ways — Declieux, 

 Duclieux, Desclieux. From the information supplied me at the minis- 

 tere de la guerre, I learn that de Clieu was a gentleman, and a connec- 

 tion of the Comte de Maurepas. Ke was born in Normandy, went into 

 tlie navy in 1702, and retired in 1760, after a distinguished career. Ho 

 died in 1775. The official reports have not neglected to mention tlie 

 important fact th'at he introduced the coffee plant into the French 

 colonies. 



^ Deleuze, Hist, d^l Museum, i. p. 20. 



* Not. Stat. Col. Frav^.,i. p. 30. * Ibid., i. p. 209. 



* Martin, Stat. Col. Brit. Emp. ^ Nouv. Diet. Ilist. Nat., iv. p. 135, 

 ' Not. Stat. Col. Franp., ii. p. 81. 



