SECTION XV. 



BOURBON, JAVA, AND THE EAST. 



IT was from Beit-el-Faguil, the European factory near 

 Mocha, that the coffee-tree was transported to the island of 

 Bourbon, in the year 1718, and it is remarkable that the 

 islanders recognised the plant as natural to their own coun- 

 try, and brought the astonished importers abundance from 

 their native mountains. In Bourbon they distinguish four 

 varieties of the coffee-plant. 



1. The Mocha, which is very delicate, for the plants de- 

 generate and often perish after a good crop. 



2. The Levoy, which is more hardy, but the coffee is in- 

 ferior in quality. 



3. The Myrtle, a variety of the Mocha, very hardy, and 

 yielding abundant crops. 



4. The Marron, or wild coffee, with such bitter and nar- 

 cotic properties that it can only be used by admixture with 

 the berries of one of the other varieties. 



JAVA. In Java, coffee is a government monopoly, and the 

 planters bring their coffee to a central government depot for 

 sale at a fixed price. The island exports about 1,250,000 cwts. 

 of coffee annually. Java coffee has lost much of its former 

 repute from being largely saturated with moisture, artificially 

 to the extent of 14 per cent. ; this increases the weight, but 

 must injure the quality in transport. 



At the Paris Exhibition of 1855, the Netherlands Com- 

 mercial Association contributed a very varied collection of 

 two dozen varieties of coffees from the Dutch government 

 possesiions in Java, under the following classification : 

 Brown, clear brown, deep yellow, yellow, yellowish, white, 



