14 



After several years in retirement, Mr. Lighthipe died at his 

 birthplace, Orange, 14 December 1927. His connection with the 

 Torrey Botanical Club, as corresponding member, active 

 member, and again as corresponding member, thus covered a 

 total period of more than forty-two years. 



John Hendley Barnhart. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE CLUB 



Meeting of November 8, 1927 



This meeting was held at the American Museum of Natural 

 History. In the absence of the President and Vice-Presidents, 

 Dr. T. E. Hazen, Editor, occupied the chair. The program of 

 the evening consisted of an illustrated lecture by Dr. Ralph H. 

 Cheney of New York University, entitled "Coffee Structure, and 

 the Effect of the Beverage." Dr. Cheney said, in part: "for 

 the great mass of humanity, coffee is a most satisfying, harmless 

 and beneficially stimulating beverage. About forty species of 

 coffee (Coffea) have been described by botanists as indigenous 

 to Africa, India and adjacent areas. Nineteen of these species 

 produce coffee beans (seeds) of economic value, but only three 

 species — Arabian Coffee, Liberian Coffee, and Robusta Coffee — 

 are of any importance. The bulk of the commercial cofTee 

 beans are derived from Coffea arabica, a small evergreen tree 

 bearing fragrant white flowers and fleshy, cherry-like fruits 

 possessing a sweet edible pulp and containing two coffee beans 

 with their flat sides together. In Persia and Turkey, the dried 

 and roasted pulp is utilized to prepare a bitter preparation 

 known as Sultana Coffee. In Arabia the fruit is allowed to dry 

 intact and the pulp is then removed and used to prepare a 

 pleasant infusion called Kisher or Kahwe. In Sumatra, coffee 

 leaves, which contain caffeine as well as the seeds, have been 

 employed in the preparation of a beverage. Liberian coffee 

 beans are larger and of a coarser flavor but are used by middle- 

 men, especially in Europe and England, to strengthen grades 

 which by themselves are flavorless. 



"The common or Arabian cofifee has been known and used from 

 time immemorial by semi-savage tribes of higher Ethiopia, where 

 it is indigenous and grows, wild and cultivated, at the present 



