161 
poncio feature. A large number of cuttings of the best English vines 
were obiained, through the kind offices of the Director of Kew Gardens, 
been carried out, and demonstrations have been frequently given by the 
Superintendent. 
The Library has been added to during the year, and work in the 
Herbarium has been continued. 
CCCLXXXIV.—COFFEE CULTIVATION IN ANGOLA. 
In a Foreign Office rte ped ia 1,333, Annual Series, 1894) Mr. W. 
Clayton Pickersgill, C.B., Her Maje sty’ s Consul at Loanda, gives a 
ony of 
west coast of Africa. The interior of this Colony, rising in a succession 
of terraces from e sea, consists of large tracts of fertile and well- 
watered country, and roads, somewhat rough, it is true, reach inlan 
stations nearly 200 js from the capital. Coffee plantations appear 
to flourish here on a large scale. It is not clear what kind of coffee is 
cultivated. ine estates are said to have been established *by the 
appr offee 
** patches metas cleared KA the natives. 
coffee indigenous to West Africa. One of these, with very narrow 
leaves, Coffea stenophylla (see Kew oo cd 1893, p. 167), is culti- 
vated to some extent on the hills at Sierra Leo The Liberian coffee 
C. liberica), also West African, is cultivated chiefly on coast lands. It 
is unlikely to flourish in the hilly districts of Angola. On the other 
hand, the Arabian coffee (C. arabica) may have been introduced long 
ago by Portuguese settlers and become naturalized in the country. 
In any case Mr. Pickersgill’s description of the coffee nen suis their 
circumstances at the pr esent time will be read with interest : 
Crossing the Lucalla in a eanoe, the traveller finds his path ascending 
o a seeming chaos of volcanic hills, and almost immediately he enters 
a fair, wild, wooded land of towering heights and echoing glens—the 
garden of Angola, and a veritable Eden orn tao with the dre 
seaboard. A climbing ramble of three or four hours, amid scenes of 
refreshing beauty, carries him up to the valley of ui highest erater— 
the loveliest of them all—watered by a perennial stream 
his way he has seen coffee in blossom and berr rry, growing in 
jungle luxuriance, and en had glimpses of white plantation buildings, 
hidden amongst the n. Here he discovers a similar homestead—the 
storehouses, shop ng dwellings, drying-grounds, engine-room, an 
distillery of an estate which is managed by two energetic y young English- 
men. From a neighbouring summit—part of the Grater 
-—can be seen the headquarters of other properties in the valleys of 
