456 COFFEE TREE. 



626. The Coffee-tree grows erect, with a single stem, to the 

 height of about 8 or 10 feet, and has long undivided slender 

 branches, not unlike those of the bay-tree. The blossoms are 

 white, and are seated on short footstalks, altogether resembling 

 the flowers of the Jasmine. The berry is red, resembling a 

 cherry, and having a pale, insipid, and somewhat glutinous pulp, 

 inclosing two hard nearly hemispherical seeds, of which the flat 

 sides are opposed to each other ; the seeds are enveloped in a 

 membrane, which resembles that forming the divisions of the 

 core of the apple, and is called the parchment. The trees begin 

 to produce berries when they are two years old ; and in their 

 third year they are in their full bearing. The blossoms expand 

 very rapidly, those of a whole plantation sometimes coming out 

 in a single night, but they fade almost as rapidly. The pulp is 

 separated from the berries, when these have ripened and have 

 been gathered, in various ways. By some the berries are ex- 

 posed to the sun, until they are perfectly dry, and the hardened 

 pulp forms a husk, which is broken away with rollers. By 

 others, the berries are exposed to the sun in layers, so that the 

 pulp is caused to ferment. And by others, again, this is rubbed 

 off in a sort of mill. The seeds, before being roasted, are nearly 

 tasteless ; but during this process, a change seems to take place 

 in the chemical arrangement of their particles, which produces 

 the aromatic flavour and odour so highly valued. 



627. When Coffee was first introduced into Turkey, the use 

 of it was forbidden by the government, on the ground of its 

 being an intoxicating beverage ; and the ministers of religion 

 complained that the people forsook the mosques and crowded to 

 the coffee-houses. It has since become, however, quite a neces- 

 sary of life in Turkey ; so that at one time the refusal of a 

 husband to supply his wife with a reasonable quantity of it, was 

 reckoned amongst the legal causes for a divorce. The history 

 of the present large demand for it in this country is very remark- 

 able. In 1808, when the duty on coffee produced in British 

 plantations was two shillings a pound, it was beyond the reach 

 of the poorer classes of consumers. The total quantity con- 

 sumed in Britain was then little more than one million pounds, 



