PLANTS. 285 



The Coffee plant, Peruvian bark, Cinchona, Caro- 

 lina Pink, Cape Jessamine, etc., all belong to this 

 family. 



Madder (Rubia tinctorum). Stem herbaceous, or 

 plant-like, procumbent, lying on the ground, angular, 

 diffusely branching, and furnished with short prickles : 

 leaves lanceolate, arranged in verticils or horizontal rings 

 (whorls) ; flowers yellow. Brought originally from the 

 East, it is, at the present day, cultivated both in Europe 

 and America, for the sake of the large reddish-brown 

 roots, which are well known to yield a valuable red col- 

 oring matter, which is much used by dyers, and never 

 fades. This sap of the roots, or the plant itself, is so 

 penetrating, that if animals cows, for instance are fed 

 upon it, the milk, skin, and even bones, become tinged 

 with a red color. Has a musty odor ; taste, a kind of 

 bitterish sweet. Considered highly medicinal, it is used 

 in many diseases. If. 



The Coffee Shrub (Coffea arabica), Willd., or rather 

 tree, has smooth, acuminate, lanceolate leaves; flowers 

 white, five-cleft ; general appearance like that of the 

 Dogwood. Berries two-celled, oval-globular ; when fully 

 ripe dark red ; each cell containing one seed, which is the 

 well-known coffee bean. Blooms nearly throughout the 

 year. Native of Arabia Felix and Ethiopia; trans- 

 planted thence to East and West Indies. Although 

 the Coffee tree, in the South, or in its native land, often 

 reaches to a height of twenty feet, in Europe, even where 

 carefully nursed in conservatories, it never attains to more 

 than five feet. There are various modes of gathering the 

 berries. On many plantations they cut off the branches, 

 and strip them of the fruit, thus rendering the harvesting 

 more expeditious. But as the berries are not all equally 



