116 COFFEE. 



Beems to be confined to isolated areas, and the leaves being so 

 large, instead of causing them to fall off, a round hole is made 

 through them, as if eaten by a caterpillar. Thus the greater part 

 of the leaf -area is left intact, and it is enabled, in spite of leaf 

 •disease, to discharge its functions as an essential part in the 

 economy of the plant. It can hardly be expected that a plant of 

 this kind can be entirely free from the attacks of the many para- 

 sites which affect vegetable life in Ceylon. One tree of Liberian 

 coffee has been attacked by borer, and the leaves of a small plant 

 have been entirely destroyed by the caterpillar of the pearl moth ; 

 but cases of this nature, so far, are too isolated and possibly too 

 accidental to allow any general conclusions to be drawn from them. 

 That the Liberian coffee in the adult state is strong enough to 

 resist attacks of leaf disease, and that it is well suited for cultiva:- 

 tion in the extensive districts of the low country, are facts alone 

 sufficient to render its cultivation in Ceylon one of the most prom- 

 ising undertakings in the island." 



Small quantities of coffee are grown along the eastern coast of 

 Africa, in Abyssinia, the Somali coimtry, Mozambique, Madagas- 

 car, Natal, lie Union, and Mauritius ; but the total yield, so far 

 as its influence upon the supply of Europe and the United States 

 is concerned, is insignificant, as the export capacity of all the 

 places named does not exceed from six hundred to eight hundred 

 tons annually. The prodiict of the eastern provinces of Africa, 

 taken in connection with the small crops raised on the west coast, 

 makes Africa contribute between three thousand and four thou- 

 sand tons to the world's production, the amount including coffee 

 grown in Egypt and the interior countries of the continent. 



