THE COFFEE TRIBE. 177 



since gave you a description (page 35), warning you 

 not to mistake it for an Umbelliferous plant, belongs 

 to the Honeysuckle tribe ; and so do the Wayfaring 

 tree (Mburnum Lantana), and the Guelder Rose 

 (Viburnum Opulus), both of which are to be met with 

 in every shrubbery. At first sight, these plants seem 

 to be unlike the Honeysuckle, but study their struc- 

 ture carefully, remembering what it is that I have 

 told you is essential to the tribe, and you cannot 

 mistake their affinity. In fact, if they were twining 

 you would never have doubted it. 



In North America there grows a plant of this tribe 

 with broad leaves, clusters of flowers sitting close in 

 their bosom, and yellow berries, called Triosteum 

 perfoliatum, the seeds of which have proved the best 

 of all substitutes for Coffee. Knomng nothing of the 

 latter plant, you cannot have suspected that it was in 

 any way allied to the Honeysuckles ; but the fact I 

 have now mentioned may excite a suspicion that it 

 may be so, as in reality it is. 



Coffee (Coffea Arabica), the infusion of whose 

 seeds forms the beverage which is probably the most 

 universally grateful of all that the luxury of man 

 has prepared, belongs to a very extensive natural 

 order, almost confined to the warmer parts of the 

 world, comprehending the meanest weeds and the 

 most noble flowering trees, obscure herbs with blos- 

 soms that it almost requires a microscope to detect, 

 and bushes whose scarlet corollas are many inches 

 long ; and producing drugs invaluable to man for 

 their important medicinal properties. Ipecacuanha, 



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