COFFEE. 129 



species above mentioned, the Brazilian Mate or Yerba is the 

 most powerfully stimulant, producing a slight and agreeable 

 intoxication, which when indulged in to excess leads to 

 delirium tremens. 



The next article in importance to Tea is 



Coffee. — The dried seeds from the berries of Coffea 

 Arabica. (Nat. Ord. CincJwnacea.) (Plate I. fig. 2.) 



Coffee, the use of which is now almost universal, was in- 

 troduced into England in 1652, fourteen years earlier than 

 the introduction of tea. The following historical account 

 of this article is from ' Woodville's Medical Botany/ a most 

 admirable work : — <c It was unknown to the ancient Greeks 

 and Romans; the generally received opinion is, that the use 

 of its infusion as a drink originated in Ethiopia. But the 

 practice of drinking it in Arabia was introduced from Persia 

 by the Mufti of Aden, in the fifteenth century. In 1554 

 its use first began at Constantinople, from whence it was 

 gradually adopted in the western parts of Europe. At 

 Marseilles it was begun in 1644. At Paris it was nearly 

 unknown till the arrival of the Turkish ambassador, Soliman 

 Aga, in 1669. In 1672 the first coffee-house was esta- 

 blished in Paris by an Armenian named Pascal, but, meeting 

 with little encouragement, he went to London, where the 



K 



