GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 23 



Malabar," by Jacob Visscher, chaplain at Cochin, in one 

 of which he states that " the Coffee shrub is planted in 

 gardens there for pleasure, and yields plenty of fruit, 

 which attains a proper degree of ripeness, but has not 

 the refined taste of Mocha coffee." The exact year in 

 which these letters were written is not known, but the 

 Dutch editor's preface is dated 1743, so that it may be 

 concluded that the plant must have been introduced and 

 known in India prior to that year, although there is no 

 official record made of the plant or its product in that 

 country further back than 1822, and though undoubtedly 

 grown there at an early period, does not seem to have 

 met with much attention there up to the close of the 

 last century, no allusion being made to it in any Indian 

 work until we come to " Heynes' Tracts," published 

 in 1 800, in one of which we are merely told that coffee 

 was then being sold in the bazaars of Bangalore and 

 Seringapatam. At the present time Coffee is grown all 

 along India from the northern limits of Mysore and south 

 to the summits and slopes of the western Ghauts in British 

 Cape Comorin, Coorg and Travancore, in the Wynaad 

 and Neilgherry mountains, as well as in the slopes of the 

 Shevany and Pulney hills. In 1 880 over 500,000 acres had 

 been taken up for Coffee culture in the Cochin, Madras, 

 Mysore, Travancore, Belgaum and Bengal presidences, 

 of which nearly 200,000 acres have now maturing plants. 

 A very large portion of the surface of Burmah which 

 still remains in its primeval state of unproductive jungle 

 — owing to the almost total absence of natural energy 

 on the part of the natives — is admirably adapted to the 

 successful and profitable cultivation of Coffee. While in 

 the hilly districts of the east coast of the Gulf of Siam, 

 Cochin-China and the Straits settlements, the cultivation 

 of Coffee is carried on to a limited extent, some fine 

 samples being shown at the Exhibition of 1862. 



