4 



the level of the sea ; and, again, the mountains of Arabia, the 

 Neilgherries, and Ceylon, furnish instances of the great 

 degree of cold that the coffee-plant will endure. More than 

 this, it is an established fact that it bears a larger, plumper, 

 and far more aromatic berry at these altitudes than in a 

 lower situation and in a warmer temperature. The coffee 

 produced on plantations near the foot of the Blue Mountain 

 Peak, in Jamaica, is the Bnest in the world. In Arabia, like- 

 wdse, the cold at night is sometimes intense ; yet who will 

 dispute the goodness of Mocha coffee ? 



Nothing can exceed the beauty of the rows or walks 

 planted with coffee-trees, from their pyramidical shape and 

 glossy dark leaves, amongst which are hanging the ripe, 

 scarlet-coloured berries. A writer, in his >" Impressions of 

 the "West Indies," thus speaks: "Anything in the way of 

 cultivation more beautiful or more fragrant than a coffee- 

 plantation I had not conceived, and oft did I say to myself 

 that if ever I became, from health or otherwise, a cultivator 

 of tl^e soil within the tropics, I would cultivate the coffee- 

 plant, even though I did so irrespective altogether of the 

 profit that might be derived from so doing. Much has been 

 written, and not without justice, of the rich fragrance of an 

 orange-grove, and at home we ofttimes hear of the sweet 

 odours of a bean-field. I have, too, often enjoyed, in the 

 Carse of Stirling and elsewhere in Scotland, the balmy 

 breezes as they swept over the latter, particularly when the 

 sun had burst out with unusual strength after a shower of 

 rain. I have likewise in Martinique, Santa Cruz, Jamaica, 

 and Cuba, inhaled the breezes wafted from the orangeries, 

 but not for a moment would I compare either with the ex- 

 quisite aromatic odours from a coffee-plantation in full bloom, 

 when the hill-side covered over with regular rows of the 

 shrubs, with their millions of jasmine-like flowers showers 

 down upon you as you ride up between the plants a perfume 



