253 
The advantage Arabian coffee possesses over the Liberian variety is 
too well known to require confirmatory evidence. So far as I know, no 
Arabian coffee has been planted by Europeans in the Straits in the low 
country, therefore it may be wellto state there is nothing original in 
the idea. Arabian coffee has been and is being successfully grown in 
am 
year would be soon enough. The experienced planter would, however, 
have fields of both coffees and plant up the Arabian only when it was 
Showing signs of exhaustion. Shade would be dispensed with when 
d 
Cola nuts are the seeds of a tree, Cola acuminata, R. Br. belongin 
to the natural order Sterculiacee. The tree is native of west tropical 
Africa, extending from Upper Guinea to the Congo. It is now intro- 
duced into most tropical countries and. is naturalised in the West India 
a 
very full description of the cola plant, Cola acuminata, R. Br. is 
I 220. It isa 
; : nad 
base, oblong acuminate, entire or slightly sinuous and revolute at the. 
margins. The flowers ar merous, polygamous [some flowers male, 
some female, and others hermaphrodite on the same plant], and arranged 
y Cymose panicles. In the male flowers the- 
in terminal and 
. Li LJ LJ | ers = e 
sessile in a ring surrounding the base of an oblong five-celled ovary 
ruit normally consists of five pods or follicles, sometimes fewer 
one | i obtu 
LI 
ae s r ve tetragonal; the testa (or seed covering) is purplish | 
five ; they are thick, horny, flat on the 
other, — 
^ Professor Oliver adds “this tree furnishes the cola nut so much 
i esteemed by the natives for their bitter flavour, and which is said. to 
wenance the taste of whatever is eaten after them, It varies very much 
