108 COFFEE. 



is full of promise and the plant likely to gain a permanent foot- 

 hold in countries where C. Arabica is cultivated, I make quite a 

 full extract from notes prepared by Mr. Morris, of Ceylon, for a 

 ■work on Liberian coffee, more especially as our dealers and con- 

 sumers wiU be called upon to test its merits and fix for it a place 

 with other kinds of coffee now in popular favor. 



"Taking the description given in a former paragraph as an 

 enumeration of the characters of a tj-pieal tree of C. Liberica, it is 

 necessary to remark that there are varieties within certain limits 

 which require to be noticed. Among the trees cultivated in the 

 Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya there are some which have 

 characters so distinct as to be easily recognized even by a casual 

 observer. For instance, one variety is distinguished by having 

 rather small concave leaves, by developing a more vigorous growth 

 of primaries and secondaries, and by constantly producing globose 

 berries with very large flower scars: these are aniong the lar- 

 gest trees, and bear the best crops. Another variety appears to 

 have flatter and narrower leaves, the berries are distinctly ellip- 

 soidal, and the seeds are very characteristically pointed at both 

 ends. Other trees are marked by less distinguishing characters, 

 but in trees where the ' number of petals varies between six and 

 nine, it is to be expected that variation would take place in other 

 organs. The instances given above are the most distinct varieties 

 which have come under notice. It may be added that plants 

 raised from these varieties retain their characters, and are easily 

 recognized. If there are several well-marked varieties of C. 

 Liberica, it would be well to propagate and distribute those only 

 which exhibit a vigorous and healthy growth of wood and pro- 

 duce the largest crops. The variation in the number of petals is 

 not constant in the same tree, but the petals are never fewer than 

 six, nor more than nine. The berries, when ripe, are of a duU red 

 color, not so bright as those of C. Arabica. Hiern, in his descrip- 

 tion, probably from dry specimens, speaks of the berries as black. 

 At Peradeniya they have never become black ; indeed they are 

 not always completely red. If C. Liberica is the original of Cape 

 Coast coffee, we shall have to add another variety to those indi- 

 cated above. Dr. Roberts, who has had many opportunities for 

 observing the trees on the West Coast of Africa, considers C. 



