54 COMMEHCIAL BOTANY. 



obtain the broken seeds or "nibs," and boil them for half 

 an hour to obtain a cup of cocoa, the cocoa is now prepared 

 in a powdered and portable form, and the beverage can be 

 prepared with a minimum amount of trouble. These modes 

 of preparation, however, lend a ready means of adulteration 

 by the admixture of flour and similar substances, so that 

 the cocoa of the present day is not generally so pure a 

 beverage as when cocoa-nibs only were used. In view of 

 the increased demand for cocoa, steps were taken in 1880 

 by the Kew authorities to traiismit from Trinidad some of 

 the best known varieties to Ceylon, Singapore, and Fiji, 

 Those sent to Ceylon and Singapore arrived in good order, 

 but those despatched to Fiji perished; a further consignment, 

 however, arrived in a healthy condition, and from all three 

 places favourable reports were received, so that cocoa has 

 now become established in countries far from its original 

 home. 



On the subject of coffee little need be said, except to 

 recall the facts, so generally discussed at the time, of the 

 almost total destruction of the plants in Ceylon by the 

 Hemileia vastatrix. It will be fresh in the memory of all 

 how that in May, 1869, a few coffee plants were observed 

 to be attacked by a small fungus, which two months later 

 had spread over two or three acres, and after this worked 

 its devastation with extraordinary rapidity, till in 1872 

 there was not an estate in the island free from it, and it 

 also spread into Southern India; in 1878 it appeared among 

 the coffee plantations of Java, in 1880 in Fiji, and in 1881 

 in Mauritius. Its ravages, continuing for several years in 

 Ceylon, had a most serious effect upon the plantations, and 

 many suggestions were made to rid the island of the pest ; 

 amongst others that of introducing an entirely new species 

 of coffee — namely, the Liberian sort (Cqffea liberica) — 

 which it was thought would be disease-proof. In 1874-75 

 large quantities of seeds and plants of this species of coffee 



