coff] 



K\yt Creatftirg ai Matmv. 



310 



twenty feet high, and inhabit the tropics 

 of both hemispheres, the greatest number, 

 however, being found in the Western. 

 Their flowers have a small egg-shaped 

 globular or top-shaped calyx, divided at 

 the summit into four or five short teeth, 

 and a tubular corolla, shaped like a funnel, 

 with four or five spreading divisions ; the 

 stamens agreeing in number with the 

 divisions of the corolla, and being either 

 fixed to the top of its tube and protruded 

 beyond it, or about half-way down on its 

 inside, and entirely included within it. The 

 fruit is a small fleshy berry, sometimes 

 crowned by the remains of the calyx, and 

 contains two seeds enclosed in a thin 

 parchment-like shell, each seed being con- 

 vex"on the outside, but flat and marked by 

 a longitudinal furrow on the inside. 



The most interesting species is the Coffee 

 shrub, C. arabica. This, when allowed to 

 grow freely, will attain a height of twenty 

 feet,with astern three or four inches thick, 

 but in a cultivated state it is seldom permit- 

 ted to grow higher than ten or twelve feet,in 

 order to facilitate the gathering of the 

 berries. Its leaves are smooth and shining, 

 and of a dark green on the upper surface, 



Coffea arabica. 



but paler beneath, about six inches longby 

 two and a half wide, and of an oblong 

 somewhat oval shape, with Avavy edges, 

 and terminated by a long narrow point. 

 The flowers are produced in dense clusters 

 at the bases of the leaves, and, being of a 

 snowy white colour, they give the shrub a 

 beautiful appearance, but are of ephemeral 

 duration ; their corolla is cut into five 

 divisions, bearing the stamens fixed round 

 the top of the tube, and protruded beyond 

 it. They are succeeded by numerous little 

 red fleshy berries resembling small cherries, 

 each of which contains two of the seeds 

 commonly called coffee. 

 At the present day the Coffee shrub is 



cultivated throughout the tropics, but its 

 native country is the mountainous regions 

 at the extreme south-west point of Abys- 

 sinia, the word Coffee being derived from 

 Caffa, the name of one of the provinces of 

 that country. From Abyssinia the Coffee 

 shrub was first introduced into Arabia by 

 the Arabs, and cultivated in Yemen, or 

 Arabia Felix as it was anciently called, and 

 for upwards of two centuries Arabia sup- 

 plied all the coffee then used. Towards 

 the end of the seventeenth century, how- 

 ever, the Dutch succeeded in transporting 

 it to Batavia, and from thence a plant was 

 sent to the Botanic Garden at Amsterdam, 

 where it was propagated , and in 1714 one was 

 presented to Louis XIV". The credit of 

 introducing the Coffee shrub into the 

 "Western Hemisphere is a disputed point. 

 One story asserts that the French intro- 

 duced it into Martinique in 1717 ; while, on 

 the other hand, the Dutch are said to have 

 previously taken it to Surinam. In either 

 case, it is certain that we are indebted to 

 the progeny of a single plant for all the 

 j coffee now imported from Brazil and the 

 "West Indies. 



The early history of the use of coffee is 

 enveloped in obscurity, and consequently 

 there are many fables regarding its origin. 

 According to the best accounts, the custom 

 of drinking coffee originated with the 

 Abyssinians, by whom the plant has been 

 cultivated from time immemorial ; and it 

 was not introduced into Arabia until the 

 early part of the fifteenth century, when 

 a learned and pious Scheikh, named Djemal- 

 eddin-Ebn-Abou-Alfagger, returning from 

 Abyssinia, brought a quantity of coffee 

 with him to Aden, where it soon super- 

 seded the beverage made from the leaves 

 of the kat (Catha editUs), and its use 

 gradually spread over the rest of Arabia. 

 It, however, met with great opposition from 

 the priests, who classed it among the 

 intoxicating beverages forbidden by the 

 Koran, and therefore prohibited its use, 

 but the most learned physicians having 

 declared it to be harmless, the prohibition 

 was removed. The European use of coffee 

 dates from the middle of the sixteenth 

 century, when it was introduced into Con- 

 stantinople ; and a century later, namely, 

 in 1652, the first coffee-shop was established 

 in London. Since then its use has become 

 so general, that the consumption of this 

 article in Europe and the United States is 

 now estimated to be not far short of nine 

 hundred million pounds, nearly half of 

 which is the produce of Brazil. Ceylon, 

 however, supplies the greatest portion of 

 that consumed in this country. In 1858 

 the total quantity imported into the 

 United Kingdom was 60,697,265lbs., of which 

 35,208,932 lbs. was retained for home con- 

 sumption, and the remainder re-exported. 

 The import duty, being three pence per 

 pound on raw, and four pence on roasted, 

 yielded a revenue of 440,475?. 



When ripe, the coffee berries are ga- 

 thered, and the soft outer pulp removed by 

 a machine called the pulper ; they are then 

 steeped in water for twenty-four hours to 



